Spring Grass

A field of green fills the surface, broken by rows of short white marks set in diagonal, wave-like bands that ripple across the composition. The pattern suggests movement, almost like wind passing through tall grass, though the forms stay purely abstract rather than depicting any specific scene. This piece, titled Spring Grass, was created in 1973 and is held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Alma Thomas (1891–1978), an American artist, worked within the Color Field movement, building compositions from repeated strokes of color. Looking closely, the white dashes vary slightly in length and spacing, giving the diagonal bands a loose, handmade rhythm rather than a mechanical regularity, which keeps the green ground feeling alive and shifting as the eye moves across it from one edge of the canvas to the other.