Celebrate the legacy of pioneering Black artist and educator Alma Thomas, a Columbus, Ga., native, at Coffee & Canvases, a special Saturday morning painting event at the Albany Museum of Art. Participants enjoy a cup of coffee together as they create their interpretations of her 1970 painting The Eclipse while learning art history.

“Alma Thomas was a longtime force in the Washington, D.C., art and education community, but she became nationally recognized for her powerful abstract painting style that she developed later in her life,” AMA Director of Education and Public Programming Annie Vanoteghem said. “This painting workshop is even more special because it is being held one day before what would have been the artist’s 133rd birthday.”

LaKeisha Smith-Martin, a visual and performing artist, art educator, and art advocate, will be the guest instructor. The 10 am-noon workshop is modeled after the AMA’s popular Corks & Canvases series of evening painting parties. “Instead of wine and snacks, we will have coffee and donuts,” Vanoteghem said. “Like with our evening painting workshops, everyone will get step-by-step instructions as they recreate The Eclipse, so no painting experience is necessary.”

According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Eclipse was inspired by the March 7, 1970, solar eclipse seen in the Eastern U.S. It was Thomas’ final work in her Space series. The painting represents totality, the brief time when the moon’s apparent diameter covers the sun and darkens the daytime sky by blocking all direct sunlight. That allows the sun’s corona, usually hidden by the bright direct sunlight, to glow. Totality during the 1970 eclipse was seen in Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., where Thomas lived.

Thomas captured that celestial effect in her painting. Rings of color warm and brighten from blues and grays to reds, oranges, and yellows as they radiate from a dark blue circle representing the moon. The dark disk is off-center in the painting, suggesting the satellite’s movement through the sky. Thomas donated The Eclipse to the Smithsonian in 1978. She passed away that year at age 86.

Her family moved from Georgia to Washington, D.C., when she was a teenager in 1907 to find better educational opportunities and to escape racial violence in the South. In 1924, she became Howard University’s first fine arts graduate. Her biography on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s website notes that the artist and longtime teacher who earned her MA in art education from Columbia University and studied art at American University was associated with the Little Paris Group and Howard University’s Gallery of Art. She was also instrumental in the 1943 formation of the Barnett Aden Gallery, one of the first Black-owned galleries in the U.S. In 1972, she became the first Black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Eclipse was one of the works shown in that exhibition.

“This is a terrific opportunity to express your creativity while also honoring and remembering a groundbreaking artist,” Vanoteghem said.

The workshop is for adults and teens. All painting materials, including the canvas, are included in the registration fee. The class is $30 for AMA donors and $35 for non-donors. Online registration can be found at www.albanymuseum.com/event/ coffee-canvases-alma-thomas/.

AMA EXHIBITIONS

• Beauty in the Humble Places, a David Lanier Retrospective, is Aug 29, 2024-Jan 4, 2025, in the Haley Gallery.

• Rootwork, recent works by Jillian Marie Browning, is Aug 29, 2024-Jan 4, 2025, in the East Gallery.

• Sixty Years of Masterpieces and Memories, highlights from the Permanent Collection, is Aug 29, 2024-Jan 4, 2025, in the McCormack Gallery.

• Old Master Drawings from the Shaffer Collection, Part 3 is Aug 29, 2024-Jan 4, 2025, in the Hodges Gallery.

• Escape Plan, an installation by Elinor Saragoussi, is in the West Gallery.