Grandma Moses: On reinventing life after 76 and art

How many times did you want to start a course, learn something new or go back to college in your “later years?”

I have many things I want to learn. I gave up going back to college and some other things but I challenged myself on some pretty interesting things.

I started to sketch line drawings or doodles to describe my travels a few years back.

They weren’t outstanding, but they were expressive and fun.

I loved sketching and painting  because it transports me to another world while I make them.

I feel peaceful.

I showed my artwork to a few people and got some interesting responses:

• A smile and a quick turn of the head accompanied by an abrupt change of subject.
• Smiles and raised eyes and eyebrows.
• A few “How cute,” some “oohs.”
• “These are great.”

The one comment that impressed me the most was, “I could never start something like that now because I am too old.”

I thought a lot about that because now, I’m one of those persons that believes that it’s never too late to do something.  I am always searching for people who have reinvented their lives after a certain age.

I grew up looking at naive paintings made by a fantastic woman who reinvented herself in her later years. 

Check out her work: They are beautiful.

Hardcover book-Found on Amazon (not an affiliate)

Have you heard of Grandma Moses?

What a lovely lady! She reinvented her life after the age of 76.

Grandma Moses’ name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses, and she was born in 1860 and died in 1961.

Grandma Moses was known for her beautiful and dreamy paintings about American rural life.

Moses worked on a farm since she was 12 years old. She loved to draw and was always sketching something.

Grandma Moses drew on newsprint and used natural pigments made from fruits such as berries and lemon juice to paint.

The family she worked for noticed her drawings and her enthusiasm so they gave her chalk and crayons to draw with. That was the beginning of her artistic career.

The Encyclopedia of World Biography stated that she was fixing up a room and applying wallpaper but ran out of it. So she plastered white paper on the walls, and painted over it.

The artwork on those walls is called Fireboard, and it is hanging in the Bennington Museum in Vermont.

Grandma Moses: An American Original by William C. Ketchum Jr. -hardcover- on Amazon (not an affiliate)

From a Farm to a Museum

When Moses was 70, she stopped working at the farm. She felt her age, and it was all getting too challenging.

Moses picked up sewing and embroidering as a hobby and sold a few pieces.

Unfortunately, she got arthritis on her right hand and couldn’t stitch anymore, so she took up painting again.

And when I read this, my eyes opened wide, and my heart beat faster, and she became my heroine!

Dear fellow women over 50: Let’s not give up. There are so many ways to be creative!

Grandma Moses: American Modern by robert Walterstorff -hardcover- on Amazon (not an affiliate)

Moses’ history and some of her extraordinary accomplishments

1938 Exhibit at the W.D. Pharmacy, Hoosick Falls, NY  (Moses was 76).

The New York collector, Louis Calder, bought all her art, and introduced her to an art agent.

People loved Moses’ art, and her art work was exhibited in different museums.

Here are only a few of her artistic accomplishments:

1939-1942

• Galerie St. Etienne NYC, solo show (He also sold Klint’s artwork)
• Gimbels Department Store
• MOMA private show
• Museum of Modern Art, Paris
• She participated in more than 150 exhibits.
• 1953 Cover of Time Magazine
• 1960 Life Magazine

Rainbow was her last painting.

Her work was reproduced in Christmas cards, porcelain, and marketing materials for different companies.

She received awards, and in 1969, her painting “4th of July” was placed on a U.S. postage stamp.

At some point her work was considered folk art and folk art  became very unpopular after the 1940’s.

All that has changed. I think there are many curators who would consider her work naive but there are many more who see the importance of Grandma Moses art.

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Updated September 2025