STANDARDS

Core Art Standards: VA2, VA7, VA9

Alma Plays with Pattern

How does this artist experiment with shapes big and small?

March / April 2026

Written by Jessica Allen

Alma Thomas

Have you ever noticed how you can combine shapes to make other shapes? Can you identify how small shapes come together to form larger ones in the paintings shown here? American artist Alma Thomas’s innovative handling of shape, especially through repetition and pattern, gained her recognition as an abstract artist. And as her works push beyond abstract shapes, the artist’s descriptive titles offer clues about what she is representing and why.

Have you noticed that you can combine shapes to make other shapes? Look at the paintings shown here. Do you see how small shapes come together to form larger ones? American artist Alma Thomas made the paintings. She’s known for her innovative use of shape, repetition, and pattern. Although she paints abstract shapes, Thomas gives her works descriptive titles. These offer clues about what she is representing and why.

Nature in Shape and Color

As a teenager, Thomas was part of the Great Migration, a period in which millions of Black people moved away from the South to escape racism. Her family moved to Washington, D.C., where she took art classes for the first time. “When I entered the art room,” she recalled, “it was like entering heaven.”

Thomas was the first fine arts graduate of Howard University. She went on to teach art at a junior high school for 35 years. Following her retirement, she began making art full-time and developed the colorful abstract style for which she’s known today.

Thomas was nearly 70 years old when she had a breakthrough. Hoping to capture patterns of light in a tree, she abandoned her representational style, instead using “little dabs of paint that spread out” across the canvas.

What do you notice first about her 1969 Pansies in Washington, above: shapes or colors? Thomas gives them equal weight. Variously sized dashes form a pattern of concentric circles in alternating yet repeating colors. The careful arrangement resembles a mosaic.

As a teen, Thomas was part of the Great Migration. During this period, millions of Black people fled racism in the Southern United States. Thomas’s family moved to Washington, D.C. There, she took art classes for the first time. “When I entered the art room,” she says, “it was like entering heaven.”

Thomas was the first person to graduate from Howard University with a fine arts degree. She taught art at a junior high school for 35 years. After her retirement, she began making art full-time.

At first, Thomas painted in a realistic style. But at nearly 70 years old, she had a breakthrough. Wanting to capture the patterns of light on the tree in her garden, she started using “little dabs of paint that spread out” across the canvas.

Look at her 1969 work Pansies in Washington, above. What do you notice first: shapes or colors? Thomas gives them equal importance. Dashes of various sizes form concentric circles.

Seeing Science

Nature gave Thomas plenty of inspiration and so did advances in science and technology. “I was born at the end of the 19th century, horse and buggy days,” she explains. Throughout her life, she “experienced the phenomenal changes of the 20th-century machine and space age.”

While listening to reports about space travel, Thomas would sketch, thinking about what Earth looked like from great distances and at intense speeds. Thomas’s 1971 Atmospheric Effects II, above, features rectangles and triangles of color. Narrow white stripes separate the colors. Together the shapes create rectangles of varying sizes.

How does the title of this work inform your interpretation of it? “Atmospheric effects,” such as haze, can alter perception, increase contrast, and blur images—transforming the way you see the world. How does Thomas use shape and color to create her own atmospheric effects?

Nature gave Thomas inspiration. So did advances in science and technology. Thomas often sketched while listening to news about space travel. She thought about what Earth looked like from space. Thomas’s 1971 Atmospheric Effects II is shown above. It features colorful rectangles and triangles.

Does the title help you interpret the painting? “Atmospheric effects,” like haze, can alter how we see things. How does Thomas use shape and color to create her own atmospheric effects?

Making Visual Music

“Do you see that painting?” Thomas asks about the work above. “Look at it move. That’s energy, and I’m the one who put it there.” How does Thomas create such dynamic energy? The artist loved music and often listened to it while working, allowing it to guide her.

Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music, above, is a triptych—three canvases arranged side by side. At more than 6 feet tall and 13 feet wide, the 1976 composition is her largest. The title helps orient viewers to the subject: flowers swaying, leaning, and shimmying as if dancing to music.

Irregular shapes appear to turn and shift from one side of the painting to the other. The placement of red daubs might appear random—but it isn’t. The shapes are dense on the left and gently thin to the right. Thomas deliberately varied the density of the daubs, until it seems like each one is a flower petal drifting on a soft breeze.

Despite living through turbulent times, Thomas saw art as a way to inspire positivity, saying, “I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man’s inhumanity to man.” How are her values reflected in her work?

Thomas loved music and often listened to it while she worked. The 1976 work above is called Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music. The title is a clue to the subject: flowers moving as if dancing to music.

The shapes in this work are irregular. They appear to turn and shift from one side of the painting to the other. The placement of shapes might seem random—but it isn’t. The shapes are packed closely together on the left. They gradually thin out to the right. Thomas varied the density of the shapes. This makes them look like flower petals drifting on a breeze.

Thomas lived through very difficult times. But she believed art is a way to inspire positivity. “I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness,” she once said. How do you think that is reflected in her work?