Aquatic Gardens

Aquatic Gardens may have been inspired by a visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, a national park in Washington, DC, devoted to the cultivation of water plants. The park features vast stretches of ponds filled with water lilies and lotuses.

Thomas did not paint outdoors, considering this to be an old-fashioned approach. She instead sought out sensory experiences she later translated into painting in her studio. She once explained that she visited gardens “not to paint but to get impressions. A friend of mine goes. . . and gets every leaf. I said I’d go crazy doing that. I told him, ‘Just go and look. It settles you, and then you don’t need to look at it anymore.’”