Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas

Celebrate the life-changing power of artwork in this inspiring and stunningly illustrated picture book biography of American artist Alma Thomas.

Circles and stripes.

Dashes and dabs.

Soft colors, bright colors.

Alma’s colors.

As a child in Georgia, Alma Thomas loved to spend time outside, soaking up the colors around her. And her parents filled their home with color and creativity despite the racial injustices they faced. After the family moved to Washington, DC, Alma shared her passion for art by teaching children. When she was almost seventy years old, she focused on her own artwork, inspired by nature and space travel.

In this stunning celebration of art and the power of imagination, Jeanne Walker Harvey and Loveis Wise tell the incredible true story of Alma Thomas, the first Black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York City and to have her work chosen for the White House collection. With her bold and vibrant abstract paintings, Alma set the world ablaze with color.