Inspired by Alma Thomas

Fourth graders investigated color as they learned about local artist Alma Thomas. Ms. Thomas taught art for 35 years in a Washington DC middle school before retiring to devote herself to painting. Her abstract colorful paintings often resembled mosaics. Students created their own colorful works in response to Thomas's paintings. First they created a wet-into-wet watercolor background with analogous colors. Then they chose contrasting colors and painted a paper with tempera paints. Finally they tore the second paper into small peices and glued them in an interesting composition to the watercolor background.