Grandma Moses Style Art

Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961)  is one of my favorite artists.   She is best known as Grandma Moses.   She began painting at the age of 80 and continued to do so until the year she turned 101.   Her folk art shows a time when life was simpler, but more vibrant than today’s world.   The fact that she lived in our area for more than two decades just adds to my interest in her.

In honor of Grandma Moses, we decided to do a little mixed media art project this week.   We used the method outlined in one of her quotes,  “ I paint from the top down.  From the sky, then the mountains, then the hills, then the houses, then the cattle.” 

We gather lots of supplies including watercolor paints, construction paper, brown grocery bags, stickers and tempera paint.  We painted in the sky using watercolors.   Then we began to cut different papers to add mountains and hills.

Once the mountains and hills were in place, the girls and I began cutting out trees, houses and even snowmen to add to the scenes.

Lastly, we used tempera paints to add leaves, shadows and embellishments.  

On this particular art project I gave the direction that I wanted at least three hills/mountains in the picture and a house. Everything else was left open to interpretation.

There was also an over abundance of stickers used by one little artist.

Olivia’s hills/mountains aren’t as visible in the photo as they are in real life, but they are there. I like that she added shadows to her trees and house.

Yes, I do these art projects along with the kids. I enjoy the projects, and working on them with my girls.