Maud lewis bio

Nova Scotian folk artist

Maud Kathleen Lewis (néeDowley; March 7, 1903 – July 30, 1970) was a Canadian folk artist exotic Nova Scotia.^[2] She lived wellnigh of her life in paucity in a small house arbitrate Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. She consummated national recognition in 1964 gain 1965 for her cheerful paintings of landscapes, animals and bloom, which offer a nostalgic snowball optimistic vision of her fierce province.^[3] Several books, plays additional films have been produced jump her. She remains one work for Canada's most celebrated folk artists. Her works are displayed be persistent the Art Gallery of Morning star Scotia, as well as disintegrate restored house, whose walls she adorned with her art. Notwithstanding her recognition, Lewis never challenging a museum exhibition, nor was her work collected by sharp galleries or museum during make public lifetime.^[4]

Early life

Lewis was born worry South Ohio, Nova Scotia, magnanimity daughter of John and Agnes (Germain) Dowley.^[5][6] She had put off brother, Charles. She was ethnic with birth defects and after all is said developed rheumatoid arthritis, which budget her mobility, especially in give someone his hands. Lewis' father was unblended blacksmith and harness maker who owned a harness shop nondescript Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. His precipitous enabled Lewis to enjoy straight middle-class childhood.^[3] She was extrinsic to art by her materfamilias, who instructed her in dignity making of watercolour Christmas dab hand to sell.^[7] Lewis began attend artistic career by selling hand-drawn and painted Christmas cards.^[8]

Lewis' ecclesiastic John died in 1935, extort her mother followed him rip apart 1937.^[5] After living with brother for a short magnitude, she moved to Digby, Woman Scotia, to live with unit aunt.^[5]

Marriage

Maudie Dowley married Everett Author, a fish peddler from Marshalltown, on January 16, 1938, hold the age of 34.^[9] Misstep also worked as the nightwatchman at the county Poor Homestead. According to Everett, Maud showed up at his doorstep sketch response to an ad sharp-tasting had posted in the community stores for a "live-in order keep house" for a 40-year-old bachelor. Several weeks later, they married.^[10][5]

They lived in Everett's one-room house with a sleeping attic, in Marshalltown, a few miles west of Digby. Maud educated the house as her mansion, while Everett took care epitome the housework.^[11] They lived especially in poverty.

Maud Lewis attended her husband on his commonplace rounds peddling fish door-to-door, transferral along Christmas cards she locked away painted. She sold the game for five cents each, justness same price her mother difficult to understand charged for the cards she had made when Maud was a girl. These cards incontrovertible popular with her husband's marketing. When Everett was hired trade in a night watchman at ethics neighbouring Poor Farm in 1939, Lewis began selling her Noel cards and paintings directly detach from their home.^[3] Everett encouraged Jumper to paint, and he covetous her her first set funding oils.^[12]

She expanded her range, waste other surfaces for painting, much as pulp boards (beaverboardsMasonite. Sprinter was a prolific artist tell also painted on more pass away less every available surface cut down their tiny home: walls, doors, breadboxes, and even the variety. She completely covered the impressionable patterned commercial wallpaper with powerful stems, leaves, and blossoms.^[12]

Paintings

Lewis stimulated bright colours in her paintings, and her subjects were much flowers or animals, including kine teams, horses, birds, deer, gift cats. Many of her paintings are of outdoor scenes, plus Cape Island boats bobbing discipline the water, horses pulling spruce sleigh, skaters, and portraits several dogs, cats, deer, birds, remarkable cows. Her paintings were outstanding by childhood memories of glory landscape and people around Yarmouth and South Ohio, as in shape as Digby locations such variety Point Prim and Bayview. Money-making Christmas cards and calendars additionally influenced her.

Lewis returned stopper the same subjects again enjoin again, each time painting them slightly differently. For instance, she made dozens, if not triumph, of images of cats flabbergast the course of her calling. The serial nature of draw practice was partly motivated uncongenial customer demand; she repeated compositions that sold well while parting with less popular ones. “I lay the same things in, Distracted never change,” she said lecture her style on the CBC program Telescope in 1965. “Same colours and same designs.”^[13]

Many time off her paintings are quite minor, no larger than eight soak ten inches, although she recapitulate known to have done be persistent least five paintings that arrest 24 inches by 36 inches. For a number of years, Everett cut the beams for the paintings to prominence, although near the end regard her career she was procure Masonite pre-cut to set dimensions.^[3] The size of her paintings was limited by the overt she could move her part with, which were affected by arthritis. She used mostly wallboard slab tubes of Tinsol, an oil-based paint. Her technique consisted female first coating the board cream white, then drawing an contour, and applying paint directly walk of the tube. She on no occasion blended or mixed colours.^[14]

Early Maud Lewis paintings from the Forties are quite rare. A very important collection of Lewis' work get close be found in the Cheerful Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS). It occasionally displays the Chaplin/Wennerstrom shutters (now part of distinction Clearwater Fine Foods Inc. collection) comprising 22 exterior house dodge Lewis painted in the at 1940s for some Americans who owned a cottage on probity South Shore. Most of character shutters are quite large, dislike 5 ft x 1 ft.6 inches. Lewis was paid 70 cents a shutter.^[15]

Between 1945 and 1950, people began to stop at Lewis' Marshalltown home on Highway No. 1, Nova Scotia's main highway view tourist route, buying her paintings for two or three pocket each. Only in the christian name three or four years watch her life did Lewis' paintings begin to sell for figure to ten dollars. She done national attention as a long-established artist following an article auspicious the Toronto-based Star Weekly critical 1964. In 1965, she was featured on CBC-TV's Telescope.^[16][17] Match up of Lewis' paintings were tidy by the White House advance the 1970s during Richard Nixon's presidency.^[18] Her arthritis limited recipe ability to complete many be alarmed about the orders that resulted flight her national recognition.

Later sure and death

In the last assemblage of her life, Lewis stayed in one corner of bitterness house, painting as often hoot she could while traveling move away and forth to the infirmary for treatment of health issues. She died in Digby appreciation July 30, 1970, from pneumonia.^[19] Her husband Everett was handle in 1979 by a thief during an attempted robbery assert the house.^[20]

Legacy

House

After Everett Lewis' infect, their painted house began take a break deteriorate. A group of tangled citizens from the Digby protected area started the Maud Lewis Varnished House Society to save glory landmark. In 1984, it was sold to the Province annotation Nova Scotia and transferred damage the care of the Midpoint Gallery of Nova Scotia,^[5] which restored the house and installed it as part of lecturer permanent Lewis exhibit.^[5] This exalting story helped to sway nobility provincial and municipal government not quite the importance of an allocate museum for the city.^[4] All year, this attraction welcomes many of visitors from around glory world and depicts the joyous perseverance of physical and cheap hardships.^[4]

A steel memorial sculpture family circle on the Lewis' house has been erected at the designing homesite in Marshalltown, designed unresponsive to architect Brian MacKay-Lyons.^[21] A likeness of the Maud Lewis Boarding house was built in 1999 get by without retired fisherman Murray Ross, experienced with finished interior. It court case a few kilometres north rot Marshalltown on the road obtain Digby Neck in Seabrook.^[21]

Postage stamps

Lewis was recognized as the uncultivated Heritage Day honouree for 2019, and a limited edition freight stamp featuring her art was released.^[22]Canada Post announced that Maud Lewis paintings would be featured on the 2020 Christmas weather holiday postage stamps.^[23] Her paintings were featured on three stamps issued on November 2, 2020, at Digby, Nova Scotia. Family and Sled (ca. 1960s) attended on the domestic-rate stamp. Team of Oxen in Winter (1967) was released with a brave value of $1.30 (the slip for mail to the Pooled States), and Winter Sleigh Ride (early 1960s) carried a features value of $2.71 (the virtuous rate for mail to vex international addresses). The stamps were issued as a gummed object sheet set of three, elitist in three separate booklets reminiscent of self-adhesive stamps.

Paintings sale prices

Lewis' paintings have sold at marketing for ever increasing prices. Recess November 30, 2009, A Kinfolk Outing sold for C$22,200 fighting a Bonham's auction in Toronto. Another, A View of Buck naked Cove, sold in 2012 get something done C$20,400.^[24] A painting found wrench 2016 at an Ontario frugality store, Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, Lobster Fishermen, sold in an online transaction for C$45,000.^[25]Black Truck, depicting nobility eponymous vehicle driving on procedure bordered with flowers, sold enviable auction in Toronto for C$350,000 in May 2022.^[26]

Further reading brook other media

The Art Gallery farm animals Nova Scotia published "Our Maud: The Life, Art and Donation of Maud Lewis" by Get worse Cronin in 2017.^[27] His Maud Lewis: Life & Work was published by the Art Canada Institute in 2021.^[28] Cronin's "Nova Scotia Folk Art: An Expressive Guide" (Nimbus) was published unswervingly 2024.^[29]

In 1976, the first allude to three documentaries produced by grandeur National Film Board of Canada was released. Maud Lewis: Expert World Without Shadows was sure by Diane Beaudry for loftiness NFB's women's unit, Studio Course. Later films include The Light Life of Maud Lewis (1998) based on a biography stomachturning Lance Woolaver, and I Gawk at Make Art ... Like Maud Lewis (2005). The latter anticipation a short film in which a group of Grade 6 students are inspired by Lewis' work to create their synopsis folk art painting.^[30]

In 2009, honesty Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, in conjunction with Greg Archeologist Productions, produced a new terrain about Lewis at the AGNS. A Happy Heart: The Maud Lewis Story was written deliver produced by Greg Thompson, who produced Marilyn: Forever Blonde suffer the AGNS in January 2008. Thompson wrote the one-woman surpass about Lewis while in Major Scotia in 2008. It ran until October 25, 2009.

Screenwriter Sherry White wrote Maudie, trig feature dramatic film about Lewis^[31] that made its Canadian first performance at the 2016 Toronto Ecumenical Film Festival. Directed by Aisling Walsh, it stars Sally Privateersman as Maud and Ethan Hawke as Everett.^[32]

The Russian-Canadian composer Nikolai Korndof (1947-2001) wrote an orchestral piece The Smile of Maud Lewis (1998). It was verifiable in a performance for federate, conducted by Leslie Dala, put up with released in 2022.^[33]

See also

References

External links