Late Night Reflections

After a long career as a public school art teacher in Washington, D.C., Alma Thomas began to gain serious acclaim as one of the foremost abstract painters of her day. Thomas developed a personal style by covering her canvases with small, colorful, tile-like brushstrokes inspired by natural forms. An uncharacteristic work, Late Night Reflections is an example of the vertical-dash compositions of her "Earth Paintings," which use tight formations of one or two colors applied with short, lively strokes from a fully loaded brush on a contrasting background. The brilliant yellow background underneath a lattice of midnight blue creates a pattern like stars in the night sky, or light reflections on shimmering water.