The Art of Grandma Moses

February 14, 2018 by Jeff Mitchell

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Initially considered an outsider artist, the cultural icon known as Grandma Moses grew to become America's best-loved folk artist.

As an elderly woman, Grandma Moses took the art world by storm with her lovely paintings. One can quickly see why too.

Her work delightfully depicts old-fashioned American life and culture in vivid colors conjured of the heart.

“Life is what you make it. Always has been. Always will be.”― Grandma Moses

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, a live-in housekeeper, a farmhand who worked alongside her husband in Virginia, a mother to 10 children...

She is remembered now as America's senior folk artist, thanks to her work as a painter. Mind you, she'd only gotten serious about painting after her 78th birthday!

It seems, in advanced age, she developed a strong yearning for the simple bliss of her past. The world had changed, after all (quite drastically at that), and she seemed to become intent on preserving her memories of how life used to be.

Modern technology and equipment were left out of her work, for the most part, and she focused on depicting life as it had been in the late 19th century. Natural, beautiful and pure in her mind's eye, she poured it onto her canvases.

“If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens.”― Grandma Moses

And boy did she paint a lot of them!

She managed to coat over 1,500 canvases. Not bad at all for an old miss.

Needless to say, her tireless industry and stunning imagery earned her a number of awards - including the tongue-in-cheek "Young Woman of the Year" award from Mademoiselle magazine at the age of 88.