Grandma Moses – passion for painting without limits

Grandma Moses ( born as Anna Mary Robertson Moses) is an admired American artist that was known as one of the most newsworthy women in the 1950’s. She is also one of the greatest examples that it is never too late to start painting or anything for that matter. Grandma Moses started her painting career building as a hobby in her seventies. She created over 3500 works of art in just short thirty years. In her first years of painting, she started simply to make gifts for the neighbors, the postman and members of her family.

It was in 1938 that Louis Caldor, a fine art lover and hefty collector discovered her unique paintings traveling through Hoosick Falls. Her paintings were being shown in the window of a tiny bitty pharmacy. Mr. Caldor bought up every one of them and then drove to see Grandma Moses where he acquired all of her works she had at her home. Not long after, Grandma Moses becomes recognized by the Museum of Modern Art in a section of artworks called the Contemporary Unknown American Painters.

Grandma Moses demonstrated that anyone regardless of age can create and present their authentic envision to the world. Junior and emerging artists today should bear in mind Grandma Moses as a fine role example. If at 70 years old woman could put together 3000 paintings; then definitely somebody with more and more time ahead of them could seek to generate such a prolific amount of artworks. With the spread of the internet, artists are now given an easier and more sophisticated way to promote their works without waiting around for chance or the luck of an art collector discovering them. Artists today can now make their own luck, preserve their own slice of fame and exposure their talent by creating paintings and sharing out online.

Grandma Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961) spent her last 31 years of her life doing what she loved and in that she became widely acclaimed. This is usually the best tip parents share with their young children and it would seem that it is fairly sound advice. Doing what she enjoyed, Grandma Moses became an art icon. Should Grandma Moses and her rise to fame be the groundwork for successful artistic business plan? In a way yes, if it wasn’t for her paintings being shown within her local community in the front window of a drugstore, she may have never get a chance to be discovered.

This is where more artists default; they do not expose their work to the outside world. Hobbyists, weekend painters, or even those painters that are explicitly dedicated to the artisan-ship can never move forward if they do not advertise enough their work. There may be many excuses given, but each one can be negated by the existence and the endless opportunities internet can present. With a simple digital camera, a computer and an internet connection, any artist can bear out their works online and can get critiques and even money for their works. People find a new Grandma Moses every day on the internet now and to not use this powerful opportunity is a shame.

Online art galleries are a authentic example of how an artist can bring to light their works just as Grandma Moses put her paintings in that tiny drugstore. Artists today can be discovered so much more quickly in the past and because of the internet, society is gaining a vast community of worldwide culture and art unlike anything seen in the time of Grandma Moses.

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Linen or Cotton? Why it matters.

As an artist and painter you are in charge of all aspects of an artwork: from choosing the project, through the paint media, the composition and colors to the canvas you work on. Everything is a matter of personal choices and preferences. I often hear that oil is classic and more professional, but for me I can’t use oils since I’m allergic to some of the ingredients so I paint with acrylic. Personally I don’t see many differences although I am sure many colleagues’ artists will argue. I do have my arguments and if you are interested to know what they are check my other article “The Artistic debate over the use of Acrylic versus Oil paints”. This is not what I wanted to discuss in this blog. I am more interested viewing different types of painting vehicles available on the market and what their uses, advantages and disadvantages are.

"Neighborhood" 2010

Choice of canvas is as important for the painting as the foundation is for a house. At the time I am writing this blog my husband and I are searching for our next home. You can kind of tell by the comparisons I am using. I didn’t know zip about foundations before, but now after looking at over 60 properties I am almost a subject expert :).

Looking in the historical prospective the mankind was initially painting on the cave walls, then on masonry stone walls and wooden boards. The wood was predominant painting surface up to 16-17 century, where first painters in Venice, Italy and then a century later artists in France and the rest of Western Europe started to use linen canvases for their artworks. Venetian artist were among the ones led the change followed many other masters on the old continent. Sail canvases were readily available in Venice one of the major trade ports in Italy at that time and offered the highest quality of the trade. Cotton duck canvases became popular in the early 20 century at first as preferred base for students and beginners artists looking for cheaper alternative to linen.

On the other hand linen canvases have many advantages over cotton ones, but the major one in my opinion is the life expectancy. If you are serious about your art use linen as it will give you stable foundation and your work will last a lot longer than if it is painted on cotton. Now, there are different qualities of linen canvases so when you buy supplies choose wisely and do research resellers as nowadays words does not weight as much as in the old days . Internet allows merchants to offer low prices but be always use caution and don’t rely solely on the description as the marketing language become so clogged and tricky to understand that sometimes I can only compare it with lawyer’s dictionary. I do have a prefered supplier and I won’t lie to you, I buy online, but I already created a line of trust with my art supplier and they continue to prove me right.

"Boats on the Lake" 2010

I do prefer linen for one other practical reason. My experience shows that while cotton canvases offer smoother surface they tend to suck the paint which cause change in the colors. No matter how many hands of primer I have used paint will still sink into the cotton. It made my work twice harder as I had to go back and correct the colors and even after that they didn’t appear as I wanted them to. From the economical stand point it made sense for me to buy a little bit more expensive linen canvases and use less of more costly paint and primer. Similar to high octane gasoline cost more but gives you more miles per gallon (km/l) and burns cleaner. Cheaper low octane gasoline cost less initially but produces less miles per gallon (km/l). The effect is the longer engine life. I hope you got my point. My entire collection of works is done on linen canvases and this should speak for itself enough.

Although the technologies have changed over the time the best linen is still produced in Belgium. Canvas quality is measured by its weight in ounces (in US) per square yard (grams per square cm in EU): the larger the number, the stronger and heavier the canvas. If you create large-scale works and especially murals the strength is crucially important. Linen canvas threads are longer, stronger and superior sustainable to decay. Linen materials retain its natural oils and thus preserve the flexibility of the fibers. Cotton on the other hand is easier to stretch and prime. With the advancement of the chemical technologies some can argue that with the proper base layers (acid free primers) preparation cotton canvases can successfully compete against linen canvases life expectancy. I do not disagree but as I said in the beginning I believe linen canvas are better choice for professional art. Yes, there are still the traditional painting standard, but only the time will and can prove it. Yet, many modern artists are experimenting with canvases made from synthetic materials which may be the choice of the future.

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I invest substantial amount of time to find and research interesting and relevant topics for my blog page.

If you like to support my research efforts donate now to keep this blog site alive.

Thank you! Your donation is appreciated!