Alma Thomas (American, 1891–1978) The Eclipse, 1970 Freshly inspired by the 1969 Moon landing, Alma Thomas created the glowing, mosaic-like work The Eclipse, part of her Space paintings series. Thomas began painting after retiring from nearly 40 years of teaching, and she explored expressionist, abstract, and nonobjective phases of art. She finally focused on bold, splashy paintings such as the one, in which her lifelong study of color theory sparkles.