Art Lit Completes Grandma Moses and Begins Studying M.C. Escher

Art lit classes have successfully completed their second artist this year, Grandma Moses. Grandma Moses was a remarkable woman, who started painting when she was 70 years old. Born Anna Robertson in 1860, she was raised in New York and married Thomas Moses in 1887. She had 10 children. Because she had arthritis, she could no longer work on her needlework projects and began painting. During her lifetime she created over 1,600 works of art. Her works are examples of folk art. She died at the age of 101. Most of Grandma Moses’ works were created from memory and were scenes of American rural landscapes. Bonny Slope students learned her technique of folk art by collaging patterned paper to create memorable landscapes.

The next artist Bonny Slope students will learn about is M.C. Escher, a graphic artist from the Netherlands whose works included optical illusions and repeating mathematical shapes such as cubes, cones, spheres and spirals, or tessellations. He used black and white to create a “3-D” effect. During his lifetime, Escher made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. He illustrated books, designed tapestries, postage stamps and murals. Bonny Slope students will learn Escher’s techniques by creating their own tessellations with paper or paint.

Want to learn more? Check out these books from the Bonny Slope library:

1. Grandma Moses by Adam Schaefer. Call # 921 MOS
2. Discovering women artists for children by Jennifer Tarr Coyne. Call # 704 COY
3. I spy shapes in art by Lucy Micklethwait. Call # 701 MIC
4. Here’s looking at me: how artists see themselves by Bob Raczka. Call # 760 RAC

Also, take a look at these great artists’ works through Google. Type the artist’s name in the search box to find incredible examples of Grandma Moses’ folk art and Escher’s images.