Maud Lewis - 1903-1970 - 1
A fabulous Canadian original was Maud Lewis, from a rural town in Nova Scotia, here holding one of her trademark "primitive art" panels for which she became famous in later life.She transcended a crippled hand and worn out body to infuse every panel she painted with a cheery atmosphere that belied her poverty bedeviled life.
One of those rare people that just has to paint, she applied her trademark birds, flowers, and animals to the doors, walls, and windows of her house.
| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |  A fabulous Canadian original was Maud Lewis, from a rural town in Nova Scotia, here holding one of her trademark "primitive art" panels for which she became famous in later life. She transcended a crippled hand and worn out body to infuse every panel she painted with a cheery atmosphere that belied her poverty bedeviled life. One of those rare people that just has to paint, she applied her trademark birds, flowers, and animals to the doors, walls, and windows of her house. |
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| Maud Lewis, Marshalltown, Nova Scotia c 1960 | |
 Great Canadian Heritage Tragedy - The story of Maud Lewis has been the sad lot of many Canadian artists, down through time, even able-bodied ones. No one wants to buy their art unless a dealer or curator with a famous gallery, and powerful connections, takes a shine to them and assures his/her rich clients that this is a "great investment." Or unless they nurture a special relationship with a powerful bureaucrat who buys for a major museum. That is how the Group of Seven rose above the hue and cry of many equal or better artists. But then it was too late in their lives even for them to benefit financially from their talents. (We can recall hearing a loud AY Jackson lamenting this very point, in his final days, in the early 70s, as he sadly haunted the galleries of the McMichael Museum, in Kleinburg, Ontario.)It is a truism, in the Canadian art world, that only dealers and auctioneers become wealthy from art by simply taking larger percentages and increasing premiums for simply selling other people's artwork... over and over... |
Maud Lewis - One of Canada's leading "primitive" or "naif" artists was Maud Lewis. Her simple, yet joyfully playful canvases make you smile. No airs, or pretense of any kind in her art. Just the joy of the inner person expressing herself with the playful exuberance of childhood motifs and expression. Who would have guessed that these gay scenes came from a person whose inner and outer life was starved of all those things that most other people take for granted to give them happiness?But she struck a cord with many urban dwellers who yearn for the simple life that her whimsical art portrays. Ah, they surmise, if only my life were as wonderfully simple like Maud Lewis's obviously must be!
Maud Lewis was born in 1903 in South Ohio, Nova Scotia, where her father was a harness maker. Her schooling stopped at grade three and to make ends meet she often painted cards with her mother for sale locally. She was often alone as a child and young woman. She was small, and had almost no chin; suitors were few in her life.
She met her husband by answering a notice for a "live-in" at the local store. At the age of 35 (1938) she married Everett Lewis, a fish peddler and moved into his tiny house in Marshalltown, NS. For the next thirty years she lived in his 12 by 16 cabin, with a small sleeping loft. But there was no indoor plumbing, no electricity, and for years not even a radio to bring the outside world in to her. Heat came from a wood-burning stove. Maud painted pictures on any pieces of wood she could scrounge, and on stones, and tins, and scallops. She used house paint, boat paint, cheap craft paint and any brushes she could find. Hair from the shedding bristles stick to many of her works. Then she would sit shyly in the car while Everett went door to door to try to make a sale. When he sold fish, he tried to sell her cards as well. She won "CBC fame" in her lifetime, but it was never enough to afford a better house or the finer things in life.
Clearly Maud's art was her way of "escaping" into a better world than fate had dealt her. As an adult she rarely left the house, painting by her window all day. Later she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis which restricted her movement. Her health failed badly as she aged especially after she fell and broke her hip. She died in 1970 at 67.
Her husband died in a fight with a burglar in 1979.
Genuine Works by Maud Lewis: These, and the pictures above, are considered genuine - and typical - works by Maud Lewis, even though the signature varies.
Beware: But with her growing popularity, the prices for Maud Lewises are going up; so is the attention of forgers eager to capitalize on an artist that looks like it's easy to fake.
You pick the fake!!!!! 
One of these two whimsical oxen teams was withdrawn by a Canadian auction house after first offering it for sale as a genuine Maud Lewis. Can you guess which one? Would you have paid top dollar for either one? Can you tell what about the painting tipped them off to the fake?
The paintings below are two more lots that were withdrawn from the auction and posted with an unusual announcement:In the opinion of experts at our gallery this painting is not by Maud Lewis and therefore have withdrawn the lot from the sale.
Can you figure out what tipped them off? Would you have paid Maud Lewis prices for both these "signed" Maud Lewises?
The fake is on the right... Is the one on the right just too lacking in the gracefully confident brush strokes of the Maud Lewis on the left: on the bodies of the oxen, the tree trunks, the leaves, the bells, the chain links, the faces? Are the bell collars just too roughly done instead of artistically integrated like Maud's? Are the quavering brush strokes due to the uncertainty of the forger in not "getting it right?" Note how all the trademarks have been carefully copied, the white socks and hoof lines, the end of the hook bent the same way. Is the signature a bit too brazen for Maud, begging for attention?
The bird House and the Fish for Sale lots were also withdrawn at the same time. The auction house considered them not to be the work of Maud Lewis. Would you have been caught with these forgeries if you encountered them at an out-of-the-way auction?
Fakes Galore!!!
Recently, in one Ontario rural auction, a "Maud Lewis" was suddenly offered among the furniture and house wares. It caused a buzz of interest and comment. Many skeptics refused to bid, but the price for a simple picture of oxen went close to two thousand dollars. Someone took a chance rather than let a windfall pass him by.
At the following auction some weeks later, miraculously, the same auction offered another "Maud Lewis"! The sudden "flood" of Maud Lewis, at an auction that had never had one before, caused more than a little comment. "The owner," said the auctioneer, "decided to let another one go from their private collection. The last one resold in Quebec already for over $3,000 so why not?"
Again someone didn't want to let an opportunity go by and paid $2,000 for it, in spite of the highly unusual venue for a work by a major Canadian painter. Why, you might well ask, wouldn't the owner offer it at a downtown Toronto auction, where the craving for Maud Lewis is greater than on a rural farm with few bidders?
At the following auction...... guess what?
And then a few weeks later the "Maud Lewis" right showed up at the same auction. Compare it with the ones up top.
Bad Call? Are they really fakes? Or are they really Maud Lewises all along? Artists are forever experimenting, trying to escape the sameness of their mode of expression in subject matter and style.
It is possible that the auction house would rather pass up a sale on a "real" Maud Lewis, than chance losing its good name, and becoming known as a place where you can easily "fence" stolen or bogus art to customers who trust the auction house to take some responsibility for the "integrity" of its listings? Will a later "expert" declare one, or all of these, "genuine" works by her?
It's clear that the artist who painted this one, is the same one who painted the "Lewis" Hodgins rejected as a fake up top.
Pity! And such a nice clean piece of unmarked masonite on the back. It's as if Maud painted it last week, and hasn't been dead for 35 years, like we were led to believe.
This one sold for a $1,600 hammer price. We'll see more at this auction.
One of these two whimsical oxen teams was withdrawn by a Canadian auction house after first offering it for sale as a genuine Maud Lewis. Can you guess which one? Would you have paid top dollar for either one? Can you tell what about the painting tipped them off to the fake?
The paintings below are two more lots that were withdrawn from the auction and posted with an unusual announcement:In the opinion of experts at our gallery this painting is not by Maud Lewis and therefore have withdrawn the lot from the sale.
Can you figure out what tipped them off? Would you have paid Maud Lewis prices for both these "signed" Maud Lewises?
The fake is on the right... Is the one on the right just too lacking in the gracefully confident brush strokes of the Maud Lewis on the left: on the bodies of the oxen, the tree trunks, the leaves, the bells, the chain links, the faces? Are the bell collars just too roughly done instead of artistically integrated like Maud's? Are the quavering brush strokes due to the uncertainty of the forger in not "getting it right?" Note how all the trademarks have been carefully copied, the white socks and hoof lines, the end of the hook bent the same way. Is the signature a bit too brazen for Maud, begging for attention? The bird House and the Fish for Sale lots were also withdrawn at the same time. The auction house considered them not to be the work of Maud Lewis. Would you have been caught with these forgeries if you encountered them at an out-of-the-way auction?
Fakes Galore!!!
Recently, in one Ontario rural auction, a "Maud Lewis" was suddenly offered among the furniture and house wares. It caused a buzz of interest and comment. Many skeptics refused to bid, but the price for a simple picture of oxen went close to two thousand dollars. Someone took a chance rather than let a windfall pass him by.
At the following auction some weeks later, miraculously, the same auction offered another "Maud Lewis"! The sudden "flood" of Maud Lewis, at an auction that had never had one before, caused more than a little comment. "The owner," said the auctioneer, "decided to let another one go from their private collection. The last one resold in Quebec already for over $3,000 so why not?" Again someone didn't want to let an opportunity go by and paid $2,000 for it, in spite of the highly unusual venue for a work by a major Canadian painter. Why, you might well ask, wouldn't the owner offer it at a downtown Toronto auction, where the craving for Maud Lewis is greater than on a rural farm with few bidders?
At the following auction...... guess what?
And then a few weeks later the "Maud Lewis" right showed up at the same auction. Compare it with the ones up top.
Bad Call? Are they really fakes? Or are they really Maud Lewises all along? Artists are forever experimenting, trying to escape the sameness of their mode of expression in subject matter and style.
It is possible that the auction house would rather pass up a sale on a "real" Maud Lewis, than chance losing its good name, and becoming known as a place where you can easily "fence" stolen or bogus art to customers who trust the auction house to take some responsibility for the "integrity" of its listings? Will a later "expert" declare one, or all of these, "genuine" works by her?
It's clear that the artist who painted this one, is the same one who painted the "Lewis" Hodgins rejected as a fake up top.
Pity! And such a nice clean piece of unmarked masonite on the back. It's as if Maud painted it last week, and hasn't been dead for 35 years, like we were led to believe.
This one sold for a $1,600 hammer price. We'll see more at this auction.
| Is that you Maud? | |
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| Probably a Genuine Maud Lewis??? | Rejected as Fake by Hodgins Art Auctioneers of Calgary, AB |
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| Appeared at the same Ontario auctioneer who "re fenced" the three Maud Lewis's rejected by Hodgins of Calgary, AB | Appeared at another Toronto art auctioneer... |
| If the first is really by Maud Lewis, the second considered a fake by one auctioneer's experts, the third sold by a crooked auctioneer, and the fourth looks like these last two - compare the delicate rendering of tree leaves and flowers of the first, compared to the rough handling in the others - would you pay three to four thousand for any of them, and sleep easy at night? What about the quick and dirty necklaces around the bells? C'mon, now, you know only a man would do that, right? | |
http://thecanadasite.com/art/art4_lewis.html
Maud Lewis House, Nova Scotia - 2
| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
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| Living Quarters, Maud Lewis House - Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS |
| Orig. Great Canadian Historic Site Found - Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS |
| Canadian naif painter Maud Lewis (1903-1970) lived, for decades, in this room... All this famous Canadian painter owned, in her entire life, is on display in front of you... A reminder that, nearly 40 years after her death, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow in Canada, and the middle and lower classes are bearing a bigger load of the tax burden - not to mention being subject to increasingly draining fees, for medical services to middle men, that were once paid by tax funded government agencies - than the rich and super-rich, who are having greater success getting governments to reduce social services for others, and to reduce taxes for themselves. So next time Maud, come back rich and connected, not talented and poor, and die at 67... |
Smile the While...
An achingly sad image of a great artist, but a greater heart...
And something that happened in one of the richest countries in the world to one of its most talented citizens.
The photo left was taken in this very room. Maud spent most of her life in this one room of her house, going upstairs only to sleep. It was where she painted all the paintings which are loved by so many today.
Below the house in its original location in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia with the outbuildings behind.
That's Everett, her husband who lived on alone after she died in 1970. It's the house in which he was killed by burglars, an example of the poor victimizing the poor in an impoverished rural Canadian community.
How can this happen in such a wealthy country? The rich and powerful control government spending for the arts and for social support for old people and children. Because they have plenty to take care of their own they don't want tax money to be wasted on lesser people's safety net.
In 2007 the rich and powerful increased Canada's defence spending by a whopping 27%, all for guns, planes, and tanks, to kill undesirable people. Canada is now the sixth biggest arms exporter in the world. Now you know why Canada has its Maud Lewises, living in hovels...
The house stood empty after Everett died until it was transported and renovated and put into the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.
An achingly sad image of a great artist, but a greater heart...
And something that happened in one of the richest countries in the world to one of its most talented citizens.
The photo left was taken in this very room. Maud spent most of her life in this one room of her house, going upstairs only to sleep. It was where she painted all the paintings which are loved by so many today.
Below the house in its original location in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia with the outbuildings behind.
That's Everett, her husband who lived on alone after she died in 1970. It's the house in which he was killed by burglars, an example of the poor victimizing the poor in an impoverished rural Canadian community.
How can this happen in such a wealthy country? The rich and powerful control government spending for the arts and for social support for old people and children. Because they have plenty to take care of their own they don't want tax money to be wasted on lesser people's safety net.
In 2007 the rich and powerful increased Canada's defence spending by a whopping 27%, all for guns, planes, and tanks, to kill undesirable people. Canada is now the sixth biggest arms exporter in the world. Now you know why Canada has its Maud Lewises, living in hovels...
The house stood empty after Everett died until it was transported and renovated and put into the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.
Guns not Butter - Canada has astronomically jumped its spending on war materiel, in fact the biggest increase in the fifty years since the Korean War... and Canada is not even at war...
Odd, isn't it, when General Hillier, the Chief of Canada's Defence Staff, says, aw shucks gosh, the Canadian Forces are only doing a little Afghan army training exercise, to help the poor people of Afghanistan...
But the good general does not explain - and certainly has not demonstrated - how the billions of dollars spent on killing machines and exploding ammunition helps the poor people of Afghanistan...
Nor how this helps the poor people of Canada? People like Maud Lewis...
Defence contractors, though, are making billions from Canadian taxpayers, and Canadian military lobbyists have never gorged themselves so much as their cut for getting to the right government bagmen...
It makes former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, taking his "retainer" of $300,000, for services rendered to a defence contract lobbyist, look like an inept buffoon in the lobby game.
Today literally billions are being expended, by one of the most isolated and safe countries in the world, blessed to be as far as it's possible to get from any aggressor on this planet, for an enormous outlay on machines of war whose only job is to kill people... in far, far, distant lands...
New Leopard tanks, and monstrously huge C-17 Globemasters, which are reputedly so big a single one can carry virtually the entire Canadian Afghanistan Contingent in one hop. Now aren't those useful purchases for Canada in 2007? These planes are so huge and were such spur of the moment purchases - you've got to show appreciation to the Americans instantly - that they have no building in Canada big enough to shelter them from the ruinous effects of cold, rain, and snow of a Canadian winter, so they will sit outside exposed to all the elements and rust away the tax payer's money at the rate of $55,000 a day.. (One conservative estimate.) Not to worry; ten years down the road the defence contractors can bill Canadian taxpayers multi-millions more for the resulting "upgrades necessary so they don't endanger the lives of Canadian men and women in uniform."
Oh, but there is one saving grace in all this, say Canada's uncharacteristically meekly quiet liberals...
They're only using them to kill foreigners...
So there you have it Maud, why things are the way they are in Canada...
So you can see, for people like you, things are rapidly getting much worse than they were when you died forty years ago...
Odd, isn't it, when General Hillier, the Chief of Canada's Defence Staff, says, aw shucks gosh, the Canadian Forces are only doing a little Afghan army training exercise, to help the poor people of Afghanistan...
But the good general does not explain - and certainly has not demonstrated - how the billions of dollars spent on killing machines and exploding ammunition helps the poor people of Afghanistan...
Nor how this helps the poor people of Canada? People like Maud Lewis...
Defence contractors, though, are making billions from Canadian taxpayers, and Canadian military lobbyists have never gorged themselves so much as their cut for getting to the right government bagmen...
It makes former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, taking his "retainer" of $300,000, for services rendered to a defence contract lobbyist, look like an inept buffoon in the lobby game.
Today literally billions are being expended, by one of the most isolated and safe countries in the world, blessed to be as far as it's possible to get from any aggressor on this planet, for an enormous outlay on machines of war whose only job is to kill people... in far, far, distant lands...
New Leopard tanks, and monstrously huge C-17 Globemasters, which are reputedly so big a single one can carry virtually the entire Canadian Afghanistan Contingent in one hop. Now aren't those useful purchases for Canada in 2007? These planes are so huge and were such spur of the moment purchases - you've got to show appreciation to the Americans instantly - that they have no building in Canada big enough to shelter them from the ruinous effects of cold, rain, and snow of a Canadian winter, so they will sit outside exposed to all the elements and rust away the tax payer's money at the rate of $55,000 a day.. (One conservative estimate.) Not to worry; ten years down the road the defence contractors can bill Canadian taxpayers multi-millions more for the resulting "upgrades necessary so they don't endanger the lives of Canadian men and women in uniform."
Oh, but there is one saving grace in all this, say Canada's uncharacteristically meekly quiet liberals...
They're only using them to kill foreigners...
So there you have it Maud, why things are the way they are in Canada...
So you can see, for people like you, things are rapidly getting much worse than they were when you died forty years ago...
http://thecanadasite.com/places/houses23maudlewis.html
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Maud Lewis Gallery
After the death of Maud Lewis in 1970, and subsequently of her husband, Everett Lewis, in 1979, their lovingly painted home began to deteriorate. In reaction, a group of concerned citizens from the Digby area started the Maud Lewis Painted House Society; their only goal was to save this valued landmark.
After a number of years of fundraising, the society realized that the project was going to take more resources than they could gather. In 1984, the house was sold to the Province of Nova Scotia and turned over to the care of Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
In 1996, with funds from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and from private individuals, the processes of conservation and restoration began. The final, fully restored house is on permanent display in Halifax at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
-Early Years
Maud Lewis (1903-1970) was born to John and Agnes Dowley in South Ohio, Nova Scotia. As a child, Maud spent most of her time alone, mostly because she felt uncomfortable about her differences around the other children. She had been born with almost no chin and was always much smaller than everyone else. However, Maud seemed to be a happy child who enjoyed the time she spent with her parents and brother. Maud's mother started her painting Christmas cards to sell and thus her career as an artist began.
Her life and only experience of the world extended to an area between her birthplace in Yarmouth County and her married home in Marshalltown, Digby County. In 1935 Maud's father died and in 1937, her mother followed. As was typical at the time, her brother inherited the family home. After living with her brother for a short while she moved to Digby to live with her aunt. There she met Everett Lewis, an itinerant fish peddler, and married him shortly after in 1938.
Life in the House
Maud spent the rest of her life living with Everett in their house in Marshalltown. The two had what has been perceived as a formidable companionship, despite any character flaws neighbors found in Everett. Because of Maud’s worsening rheumatoid arthritis, she was unable to do housework. Everett took care of the house, and Maud brought in money through her paintings. The two were a pair that Maud was proud to be a part of.
The home they lived in was tiny in stature but large in character. Despite the lack of modern amenities like indoor plumbing and electricity, the house shows that Maud's life in Marshalltown was full of enjoyment through her art. Those who stopped after seeing her roadside sign, "Paintings for sale", found a quiet woman with a delightful smile. Her pleasure didn't come from the pride of having done a painting, but the creative act itself and the enjoyment others seemed to get from her work.
Through newspaper and magazine articles, as well as television documentaries, Maud became well known and a reputation grew that’s still growing today.
The House
After the death of Maud Lewis in 1970, and subsequently of her husband, Everett Lewis, in 1979, the lovingly painted home began to deteriorate. In reaction, a group of concerned citizens from the Digby area started the Maud Lewis Painted House Society; their only goal was to save this valued landmark.
After a number of years of fundraising, the society realized that the project was going to take more resources than they could gather. In 1984, the house was sold to the Province of Nova Scotia and turned over to the care of Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
In 1996, with funds from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and from private individuals, the processes of conservation and restoration began. The final, fully restored house is on permanent display in Halifax at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
https://www.artgalleryofnovascotia.ca/maud-lewis
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Evertt's Painting and Murder
The roadside sign from The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver
Though Evertt Lewis' gaunt face and rail thin body seemed frail, his bright eyes had the sly look of a hustler about to make his mark. He shifted through a messy pile of assorted household objects and pulled out a thin art board, wrapped roughly in old newspapers and presented it to my father.
Evertt explained that all of his wife's paintings had sold in the time since her death, but he had this artwork of his own that he could sell to us. My father unwrapped the newspaper, revealing a winter scene of two yoked oxen painted in near perfect mimicry of Maud's, by then, well known style.
Twenty dollars. That is what he was asking for the painting of the two oxen.
If my father was disappointed with the painting, he did not show it. He handed Evertt a twenty dollar bill and chatted respectfully with the old man.
Maud in her red coat. She uses the coat's large floppy sleeves to hide her hands, which were crippled and deformed by rheumatoid arthritis. Photograph by Bob Brooks from the The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis.
Maud and Evertt Lewis's home has been restored and stands on
(Take a tour of the house here.)
Not long after our visit that summer afternoon, Evertt was murdered.
Rumors had spread through the local community that Evertt, well known for his miserly ways, had money stored in a jar and buried in the garden or stashed under the floorboards of the house. A young man broke into the house hoping to make off with cash box and Evertt died in a struggle to protect his money.
Even more remarkable than this sad and dramatic ending to the story, is that out of physical hardship and extreme poverty was born the most joyous artwork imaginable. The story began when Maud met Evertt Lewis.
According to one of the many tales of their courtship that Evertt told over the years, Maud Dowley walked from her aunt's home in Digby, Nova Scotia and knocked on the his door. Evertt, a forty-four year old bachelor, had posted an ad in local stores for a housekeeper. Maud apparently refused to be his housekeeper and insisted that they would have to marry if she was to come to keep his house. As Evertt tells the story, he was undecided about her proposal. His dog, on the other hand, was "... a pretty sharp dog, who wouldn't let anyone into the house. But when Maud came, he never said a word."Rumors had spread through the local community that Evertt, well known for his miserly ways, had money stored in a jar and buried in the garden or stashed under the floorboards of the house. A young man broke into the house hoping to make off with cash box and Evertt died in a struggle to protect his money.
Even more remarkable than this sad and dramatic ending to the story, is that out of physical hardship and extreme poverty was born the most joyous artwork imaginable. The story began when Maud met Evertt Lewis.
Evertt gathers firewood for the stove, while Maud watches from the doorway.
Photograph by Bob Brooks from the Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis.
More likely, Evertt actually met Maud when he came to her aunt's home peddling fish. Maud was flattered by his attentions and impressed with his black model-T Ford (the black car figures in many of Maud's paintings).
Photograph by Bob Brooks from The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis
In the mid 1930's Maud's life took an unhappy turn, when her father passed away, followed by her mother two years later. Then Maud became pregnant.
As with many an unwed mother in the 1960's, Maud was sent in shame to a rural home to give birth to her baby in secrecy. After the baby was hastily put up for adoption, Maud's only brother Charles banished her to live with an aunt in the small town of Digby. Charles never saw or spoke to his sister again.
Maud did not let nature limit her representations of the world around her. In this painting, there are trees with brightly colored fall leaves in a winter landscape. From the Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver.
Maud and Evertt married in 1938. Maud was pleased and proud to be a married woman, despite the fact that Evertt lived in relative poverty. While her own childhood had been a comfortable one filled with loving parents, pet cats, music and art, Evertt, as ward of the local county, had been boarded out to local farms, where he received food and lodging in exchange for his labor. This experience taught Evertt to be a resourceful scrounger. He caught fish in nearby tidal pools, bartered the fish for produce, he dug for clams, he trapped rabbits and he grew his own vegetables in a small garden plot.
If Evertt was hoping his new wife would do the cooking and the cleaning, he must have been disappointed. By her mid-thirties, Maud's hands had become so deformed by arthritis, she could barely grasp a paint brush in her fingers.
Photograph by Bob Brooks from The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis
As a child, Maud's mother Agnes had taught her how to paint Christmas cards, which they then sold door to door for five cents a piece. Maud found cards time consuming however and they required finer work than her hands would allow, so she switched to painting.
Maud began each painting with a pencil sketch and then filled in the shapes with quick strokes, one hand supporting the other that held the paint brush. She painted the same scenes again and again like favorite songs: a yoked pair of oxen, horse drawn carriages, cats, birds and flowers. What is so lovable about her crude style is the bright colors and the underlying humor.
Painting from the Collection of Bob and Marion Brooks from The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis
When she was in her mid-sixties, Maud's health fell further into decline. She died in 1968 and was laid to rest in a child's coffin. Her paintings, by then, had achieved notoriety through a series of articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as a feature on CBC television program Telescope.
Painting from The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver
Evertt lived on another 11 years after Maud's death. During that time he became increasingly eccentric and suspicious of the world around him. Apart from his old age pension, Maud's paintings had been his only his only source of income. When the last of her paintings had been sold, Evertt began to paint his own artwork. My own painting of the two oxen was one such creative endeavor.
I thought back to the our visit to the little house and to the painting that my father had purchased for $20. Wouldn't Evertt, that sly old fox, driven a harder bargain if only he had known what the painting would one day be worth!
The painting that we purchased hangs in my dining room below a small print of one of Maud's winter scenes. I felt that their artwork should be together after all.
References and Other Related Reading:
by Lance Woolaver
Photography by Bob Brooks
Nimbus Publishing
This is a beautifully written book and my principal reference for this post. Here are the publisher's notes: Maud Lewis (1903-1970) was recognized and revered in her own lifetime, She offered her endearing images to the passing world through her roadside sign, "Paintings for Sale" and was rewarded by the enthusiastic response she received from both the community and tourists as well as from art collectors.
Conserving a Folk Art Treasure
By Laurie Hamilton
Goose Lane Editions 2001:
For many years, Maud Lewis was one of Nova Scotia''s best-loved folk painters. Between 1938, when she married Everett Lewis, until her death in 1970, Maud Lewis lived in a tiny one-room house near Digby, Nova Scotia. Over the years, she painted the doors inside and out, the windowpanes, the walls and cupboards, the wallpaper, the little staircase to the sleeping loft, the woodstove, the breadbox, the dustpan, almost everything her hand touched.
http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2011/01/evertts-painting-and-murder.html
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She's called Nova Scotia- Rita MacNeil
Queen of the Grand Banks Schooners- The Bluenose
Anne Murray- A Little Good News- 1983
Lewis, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, spent most of her adult life in extreme poverty, sharing a one-room, 13 x 12 foot home with her husband. While there was no electricity or water, the Lewis home was lovingly covered in Maud's painting.
Through her bright, distinctive style, Lewis has become an icon of Eastern Canadian folk art. After her death in 1970, and her husband's death in 1979, their abandoned house began to deteriorate. After a group of concerned citizens lobbied for its restoration, the Province of Nova Scotia turned it over to the care of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, where it now stands, restored and conserved in the safety of the museum.
Six years after Lewis's death, the National Film Board of Canada produced this short documentary about her life and work. It is 35 years old, so the narration is SUPER schmaltzy, but there are some gorgeous shots of Yarmouth County landscapes, Maud's paintings, and THE ORIGINAL Maud and Everett Lewis home.
http://avenuecoloniale.blogspot.ca/2011/04/maud-lewis-1903-1970.html
Maud Lewis Canada Film Board Documentary -1965
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Maud Lewis biopic earns ‘phenomenal’ response
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Published October 21, 2016 - 5:57pm
Last Updated October 22, 2016 - 12:28pm
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — “As long as I’ve got a brush in front of me, I’m all right.”
Beloved Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis spoke those words to a CBC documentary crew in 1965. She was bent over a vibrant Maritime scene painted in her trademark, deceptively simple style. Her hands were so clawed with rheumatoid arthritis it was almost painful to watch her move the brush.
“(I’m) contented right here in this chair,” Lewis said as she sat beside the single front window of the tiny wooden house she shared with her husband, Everett, in Marshalltown, N.S.
RELATED: Maudie strikes all the right notes
Inside the home, butterflies and bluebirds swooped past drab, smoke-stained walls and finished paintings that today would fetch thousands of dollars were priced at just $5.
Where less indomitable souls might have seen suffering and deprivation, Lewis saw beauty. That spirit is at the heart of the Canadian-Irish film Maudie, starring Academy Award nominees Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) in the title role and Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) as Everett Lewis.
It was recently picked up by Sony Pictures Classics with distribution rights covering the U.S., the United Kingdom and Latin America.
“It’s phenomenal,” said St. John’s, N.L.-based producer Mary Sexton of the initial response on the film festival circuit, including Telluride in Colorado where it had its world premiere in September. It then screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and will close the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival on Sunday.
“It didn’t come easy,” Jenn Brown, executive director of the festival, said of the perseverance it took for the film’s production team.
“I think all of that dedication and investing so much time and energy, just pouring their hearts into it for more than a decade, it shows. And that’s the reason why it’s doing so well.”
Sexton worked almost 12 years along with producer Mary Young Leckie to get the movie made. It was shot across the island of Newfoundland, evoking the seaside landscapes of Digby County, N.S., where Lewis spent most of her life.
“I ain’t much for travelling anyway,” she said in that 1965 interview, shot just five years before her death at 67. She painted scenes mostly from memory, of farm life, winter sleigh rides, cats framed by cherry tree blossoms, and harbour views with clouds resembling sea gulls.
Humour shows up often, including in her piece Road Block as cattle on a country road stop a couple in a flashy red convertible.
Maudie tracks her growing success as an artist whose appealing style, free of shadows, drew national media attention in the last years of her life. Former U.S. president Richard Nixon commissioned her work for the White House.
Despite that recognition, she and her husband remained in a home that barely measured four metres by four metres, with a loft sleeping area. It had no electricity or running water.
The unlikely pair met when Everett Lewis, a gruff fish peddler who had grown up an orphan, posted an ad in a local store looking for housekeeping help.
Maudie traces how love grew between them.
“It’s a very simple life,” said director Aisling Walsh. “That simplicity in their lives is what people respond to.
“The most incredible thing is that people go on that emotional journey with them and, at the end of the film, take something away from it.”
The couple’s little house from Marshalltown was preserved after their deaths and is part of a permanent exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.
Sexton said their story, written for the screen by Newfoundlander Sherry White, is ultimately one of hope.
“They lived a very hard, hard life and they survived. Through their love and their backbone, they continued to do what they wanted to do and never let anyone else influence their relationship or their lives.”
http://thechronicleherald.ca/artslife/1408306-maud-lewis-biopic-earns-%E2%80%98phenomenal%E2%80%99-response
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