Orion is part of Alma W. Thomas's Space Paintings series, inspired by her interest in the American space program, especially the dramatic photographs of the universe taken during rocket flights. Although it does not depict the mythological hunter Orion or the constellation named after him, Thomas's canvas does suggest what one writer has called "a glimmering, starlike flicker."1

Like all of Thomas's works, this painting was created from a series of small watercolor sketches. Thomas then applied her colors freehand, using faint pencil lines as a guide. The darker of the two shades of red used in Orion is concentrated in two areas, both to the left of the painting's center. This adds to the dynamism in the composition. Aside from the vibrant quality of the lighter red, what makes this work exciting is the unpainted white spaces still visible between the dabs of color. This creates a pulsating, shimmering, and ever-changing visual rhythm all across the composition-comparable, as Thomas said, to the streaks of color one might see while riding in a fast-moving train or airplane.

1 Merry A. Foresta, A Life in Art: Alma Thomas, 1891-1978 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981), 28.