Black History Artist: Alma Woodsey Thomas

This abstract fine art lesson let my students cull which painting format they wanted to try out — a circular or an vertical stripe one.

Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891 – 1978) was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century.

Thomas is best known for her abstract paintings that she created later her retirement from a 35-twelvemonth career teaching art at Washington's Shaw Junior Loftier Schoolhouse. Pedagogy immune her to support herself while pursuing her own painting part-time.

Thomas's early fine art was realistic, though her Howard professor James V. Herring and peer Loïs Mailou Jones challenged her to experiment with abstraction. When she retired from teaching and was able to concentrate on fine art full-time, Thomas finally adult her signature fashion. She debuted her abstract work in an exhibition at Howard 1966, at the historic period of 75.

You lot tin read more than about her Alma's life story on the National Museum of Women in the Arts website.

MATERIALS

  • Multimedia newspaper
  • Liquid tempera paint
  • Circumvolve stencil

DIRECTIONS

  1. If students chose to try Ms. Woodsey'southward circumvolve painting, they had a stencil to first trace in pencil.
  2. The circle was painted solid with tempera paint.
  3. Dashed lines were painted around the circle until the paper was full.
  4. If students wanted to do the vertical painting, they just painted dashed lines, free form style.
A lovely pupil sample

FOLLOW UP PROJECT

Now it'southward easy to brand a classroom mural to gloat the creative work of African American artist Lois Mailou Jones.

All you need to do is purchase aLois Mailou Jones Landscape template from my PDF Store, have each student color a page, and then tape or glue information technology back together according to included directions.

It makes a special work of art for your classroom, and because anybody takes part, a collaborative experience likewise.