If you know somethin’ well, you can always paint it but people would be better off buyin’ chickens.
Meaning of the quote
The quote suggests that even if you're skilled at painting, it's usually better for people to buy real chickens instead. The idea is that while you can paint a picture of chickens, it's more practical and useful for people to have the actual animals rather than just a painting of them.
About Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses, whose real name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses, was an American folk artist who didn’t start painting until the age of 78. Despite her advanced age, she gained immense popularity in the 1950s, appearing on the cover of Time Magazine and having a biographical documentary made about her. Her simple, nostalgic paintings of rural life captivated many and she was awarded two honorary doctoral degrees for her work.
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More quotes from Grandma Moses
If I hadn’t started painting, I would have raised chickens.
American artist (1860-1961)
Painting’s not important. The important thing is keeping busy.
American artist (1860-1961)
I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene.
American artist (1860-1961)
A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, and the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day.
American artist (1860-1961)
If you know somethin’ well, you can always paint it but people would be better off buyin’ chickens.
American artist (1860-1961)
I look back on my life like a good day’s work, it was done and I am satisfied with it.
American artist (1860-1961)
Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.
American artist (1860-1961)
I paint from the top down. From the sky, then the mountains, then the hills, then the houses, then the cattle, and then the people.
American artist (1860-1961)
A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells.
American artist (1860-1961)