Red Abstraction

Alma Thomas was inspired by the garden outside her window and painted images that suggest light flickering through leaves and petals. She used dabs and strokes of paint to express the ​“new colors through the windowpanes” that appeared every time the plants moved in the wind (Alma Thomas: Phantasmagoria, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2001). Here, the reds, browns, and greens create a warm, heavy mass in the center of the image, which contrasts with the paler shades around the edges. The earthy tones evoke the changing of the leaves during fall, when treetops appear to burst with vibrant color.