Grandma Moses Art Literacy Presentation

Artist Biography:

Anna Mary (Grandma Moses) was born on a farm in Greenwich, New York, on September 7, 1860. That’s 153 years ago. She grew up on a farm with nine brothers and sisters. When she was 12 she left the family farm to work on other farms.  When she was 26 she met her husband, Thomas Moses. Together they ran a farm of their own and raised 5 children; there wasn’t any time to paint because of all the work that was needed. The butter Mary made on the farm for her family was so good they decided to try and sell it at a local store.  It became so popular that Mary started churning 160 pounds of butter a day by hand!  Mary and her husband became very successful farmers.

Grandma Moses loved to embroider, or create pictures with fabric and thread. As she got older doing this began to hurt her wrists and finger because of arthritis. A friend of hers suggested painting so in her late 70’s she gave it a try, without ever having had an art lesson in her life. She mainly painted the surrounding countryside of her childhood farm and the changing seasons. When she had done quite a few paintings, her son brought them to a local Store to display them in the window for sale.  One day an art collector from New York saw the paintings.  He bought all of her paintings and wanted more.  He was given the directions to Grandma Moses’ house, and upon meeting her, bought all of the paintings she had on hand.  He took them back with him to New York and started showing them to several art museums.  One gallery decided to have an exhibit of her work. This was in 1940 when Grandma Moses was 80.  After this showing Grandma Moses (a name given her by the public) became very famous and won many awards for her art.

She painted 26 paintings after the age of 100, but after that she grew very tired and eventually died on December 13, 1961 at the age of 101, she had created over 2000 works of art.

The Old Oaken Bucket

·         Painted in 1943 at 83 years old

·         Oil on board

·         Ask, “what do you see in this painting”-state that in each painting Grandma Moses always painted a “scene”

·         Describe foreground, middle ground & background using the buildings, trees, and animals as examples

·         Ask the kids if they can see door knobs on every house, faces on every animal or person etc. – point out that Grandma Moses did not use many tiny details

The Maple Bush

·         Painted in 1953 at 93 years old

·         Ask the students what they can find in each the background, middle ground, and foreground- point out how things get smaller as they are supposed to look further away

Catching the Thanksgiving Turkeys

·         Painted in 1958 at 98 years old!!

·         Ask the students, “What do you see happening in this painting?”

·         Point out how the road gets smaller and the sides closer together as it appears further away (left side of painting)

Joy Ride

·         Painted in 1953 at 93 years old

·         Although it can’t be seen in the picture, Grandma Moses added glitter to this painting –which she did often to her winter paintings to make the snow sparkle

·         What’s happening in this painting? (More than one thing is happening!)

·         Do the people have details on their faces or clothes?

·         What’s in the Background? Foreground?

Project:

What you need:

• ·         1 Blue OR grey paper for background for each student
• ·         1 White paper for snow for each student
• ·         Colored pencils &/or crayons
• ·         Glue Stick
• ·         Brown Building shapes (1 large per student, 1-2 small per student)
• ·         White paint- squirted into small bowls with 2 paintbrushes to each bowl
• ·         Glitter shakers & 3 Trays to shake into 
• ·         Large grey paper desk cover

Step-1- Demonstrate: Tear your white paper in half length wise…can make it bumpy for hills if desired. Glue      both pieces overlapping onto your background to make snow on the ground. Instruct the students, “then glue on your buildings, add details, for example; trees, people, fences, animals, a road, a pond, a snowman etc… but NO GRASS because it’s covered with snow; encourage them to make a “scene.”

Step-2- If you haven’t already…pass out large grey desk cover papers, white papers, background papers, and have the students come up a few at a time to choose; 1 large building and 1 or 2 small buildings.

Step-3- Have the students start by ripping their white paper… then gluing… then drawing details… then paint... & lastly, glitter.

Step-4- When students have finished the details have them paint white snow wherever they want it (tops of buildings & trees, and snow falling everywhere).Instruct each student to go to the "glitter station" (not on carpet!)- where they can place their piece into a tray and shake glitter all over it, then shake excess back into the tray. 

Step-5- Have the students place their finished piece somewhere to dry

SAMPLES:

Art Volunteers: At the end please clean up all supplies including rinse brushes, throw away small paint bowls and pour glitter back into the shakers, so that everything is ready for the next class. Thank you!