Bolder and Brighter: Grant Wood 2.0
The Minnesota artist Robin Moline has always loved Grant Wood’s rolling landscapes. You can see that in her paintings, which capture the same subjects and style.
So it makes sense, then, that Moline will display 20 of her works in the little white house that Wood made famous, the American Gothic House in Eldon.
Visitors can see the new show every Saturday and Sunday in July during regular visiting hours, when staff will be on site to lead tours and discuss the art. The visitor center will also host an opening reception from 1 to 3 p.m. on June 30, when guests will be able to meet Moline and enjoy light refreshments.
A native of northern Minnesota, Moline has always loved the Midwestern landscape. She remembers playing with a toy barn as a kid, reading “Charlotte’s Web” and spending many happy days at her grandparents’ farms. “Every time I went,” she said, “it was always so magical to me.”
She went on to graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, taught a few classes there, and has worked as a freelance illustrator for more than 30 years.
Moline married a farmer-turned-artist and moved in the late 1990s to the St. Croix River Valley, where she finds endless inspiration for new compositions. Like Wood, she specializes in rolling, bucolic landscapes but gives them an extra jolt of energy by airbrushing a base coat of bright color.
Moline has displayed her work at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois, and the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. She has done illustrations for Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, Colorado, and worked on the official golf maps for the U.S. Open for more than 10 years. She also created the artwork for the popular “Farmers’ Market Stamps” for the U.S. Postal Service.
More recently, she has worked with Fine Art America to make her most popular and requested paintings available as giclee prints and has a gallery of ant characters she created for a Hollywood client. Her latest print gallery features an extensive collection of digitally designed and painted art globes, an ongoing series she’s been developing the past few years.
But in Eldon, visitors will see some of the works that were inspired by one of her favorite muses.
“I often call myself Robin Wood,” she said.
