Carrie Helen Thomas was born in Oxford, England on December 28, 1865 and studied art there at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Artist She came to the United States in 1893 and on December 16, 1895 she married Theodore Dranga, a merchant who was born in Wisconsin in 1867 to parents who had immigrated from Norway.
She painted the Hawaiian landscape with a "remarkably sensitive touch". She also painted portraits and skyscrapes. Her paintings regularly appeared on the cover of Paradise of the Pacific magazine in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Golden Shower Tree published in a 1927 edition
She lived in Hilo until shortly before her death in 1940.
The Hawaii State Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Lyman House Memorial Museum (Hilo, Hawaii) are among the public collections holding works by Helen Thomas Dranga. Her paintings were said to "seem to reflect the romantic view of Hawaii" at a show at the Hawaii State Art Museum in 2014 of early 20th century paintings of Hawaii.
