Paulette Thenhaus holds a Master of Arts degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Webster University, St Louis, Missouri.

Her award-winning column, "Art View", ran in the Zephyr untill the paper's closing in 2011.

Artist residencies include the Dorland Mountain Colony in 1985 and 2002 and the Woodstock School of Art in 1987 and 2006. She was among the first to participate in Studios Midwest in 1986 in Galesburg, Illinois where she now resides.

Her paintings are in private collections in ten states, Canada and Great Britain.

Corporate and museum collections include: Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Indiana; Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University; Giant City Lodge, Southern Illinois; Cincinnati Bell, Ohio; Granite City Steel, Illinois.