While Alma Thomas worked for decades as a teacher, but she continued pursuing her art. She took classes at American University in Washington. She showed her work in group exhibitions with other African American artists. While she obviously experienced some setbacks as a black woman, her work was not taking on feminist or racial themes. Her early works in the 1950s were generally academic, realistic works and while they were fine, they didn’t stand out too much. During this period though, as she was studying at American Universtiy she became more interested in color and abstraction. 

In 1966 Howard University offered to put on a retrospective show of her work. She was actually considering giving up painting due to arthritis pain but with that tremendous opportunity, she wanted to produce something new. She looked out her window and was struck by the color. She watched the sunlight shift the colors on the trees and the flowers in her garden and she began working in a more expressionistic, abstract style.

Ultimately, she is best known for her abstract works. Her style is characterized by mosaic like splashes of color somewhat like the impressionists, but also borrowing a bit from color field painters. 

I think one of the most inspiring bits is she rose to prominence as an artist after three decades teaching (she taught junior high for 35 years). She continued pursuing her passion and demonstrated it is never too late to learn, grow and develop your talents. 

In an interview in 1970, she said, “Creative art is for all time and is therefore independent of time. It is of all ages, of every land, and if by this we mean the creative spirit in man which produces a picture or a statue is common to the whole civilized world, independent of age, race and nationality; the statement may stand unchallenged.”

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