5 things:
1. Anna Mary Robertson Moses, popularly known as Grandma Moses, didn't start painting until she retired from farming at age 78.
2. By the time Moses died (at age 101) 23 years after she got out of farming, she had painted THOUSANDS of pictures.
3. A little math: If she painted one picture a day....23 years x 365 days = 8395. Doubtful. One picture a week for the next 23 years? that's 1196.
4. 5.5 months till I turn 78! I have to step up my production schedule!!
5. She used oil paint for these last paintings. Her first pictures were embroidery, but arthritis made it painful to hold the needles. Jaysus!
A little math corrected for the leap years : 8400 and 1200 respectively.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. Thanks, Stu.
ReplyDeleteYep! Get crackin,' 'cause time's a-wasting!
ReplyDeleteI never found any evidence of Moses's compulsion to "paint as much as she could in the time remaining." She just rather seamlessly moved from embroidery, which she had always done, to painting--because of her arthritis. Her urge was to continue her art in any way she could. She gave away most of her early work--to the mailman, to her friends and family--as gifts. When she finally began to sell her paintings, the small ones went for $2, and the larger ones for $3 each. i am not her, and i have a long way to go to catch up. I've been writing more than I've been drawing or painting. My favorite medium was modeling clay--we made whole villages--houses, furniture, people, bicycles, animals. I could spend whole afternoons doing this as a child. Grandma Moses painted from memory. I've never done that at all. Occasionally when I draw cartoons, there is memory involved, but not
Deletemuch. (Le Singe Orange, for example--I've never had an orange monkey in my past life.) Maybe I can start that now. Pictures from the past. Hmmm...
Another challenge will be finding a place to paint. This will involve getting rid of a short ton of books in my spare bedroom. Problem is, I love my own books, and my favorite outings here are to the library on 9th & G Sts. NW and Kramerbooks on Connecticut between P and Q Sts NW. But you can't take it with you, as they say.