• Trailer for "Maudie" - a movie based on Maud Lewis' life.
• Canadian Encyclopedia: Paying Tribute to Painter Maud Lewis.
• The Guardian: Perspectives on Maud Lewis: Joan Small on the time they spent together.

Life:

• "1903 Maud born March 7, the only daughter to John Nelson Dowley and Agnes Mary Dowley in South Ohio, Nova Scotia.
• 1914 The Dowley family moves to the shire town of Yarmouth, Maud's father opens a successful harness shop.
• 1914 At the age of 11, Maud completes Grade Three and ends her formal schooling. Maud spends much of her time alone or with her mother. Maud begins to paint and learns to play the piano.
• 1935 Maud's father dies.
• 1937 Maud's mother dies. Maud lives briefly with her brother, Charles and his wife. She is hastily sent by her brother to live with Aunt Ida Germaine in Digby, Nova Scotia. Maud and her brother never speak again.
• 1938 Maud marries Everett Lewis, an itinerant fish peddler, and moves into his tiny house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia.
• 1938 Everett sells Maud's painted Christmas cards door to door from his Model T Ford as Maud waits in the car.
• 1939 Everett takes a job as night watchman at the "Poor Farm." Maud begins to sell her paintings from the house.
• 1950 Maud's reputation grows beyond Digby County. As well as cards and boards, Maud paints household and found items including baking tins, rocks and scallop shells.
• 1965 Maud is featured on CBC-TV Telescope broadcast and in numerous newspaper stories. The publicity brings in orders from around the world.
• 1968 Maud's health goes into decline after she falls and breaks her hip.
• 1970 Maud dies on July 30th. Everett engraves Maud's maiden name, Maud Dowley, at the base of his parents' stone.
• 1979 Everett dies at home in a struggle with an intruder. "

Maud Lewis painted to bring light to her simple, rural life. Her art reflected "an inner light that found joy in memories and imaginings of rural Nova Scotia, and the animals, landscapes, and activities that define country life" Others found joy in her art as well and they enjoyed passing by her wondrously painted home. Maud never thought of herself as an artist. Painting is just what she enjoyed doing. She had no formal art training, she only used to paint cards and objects at an early age. She has never been to a gallery of know of others who painted. She knew that paint can be used to create images that pleased herself and others. Maud Lewis was born in 1903 to John and Agnes Dowley in South Ohio, Nova Scotia. John was a harness maker. As a young child, Maud Lewis spent much of her time alone. She had been born with almost no chin and was always small. As she grew older she gained rheumatoid arthritis which restricted most of her movement. Maud was a happy child she enjoyed spending her time at home with her family. She learned how to play the piano, The family enjoyed listening to music. Maud and her mother painted Christmas cards to sell to friends and neighbors for many years. Her experience of the world extended between Yarmouth Country and her married home in Marshaltown, Digby Country. There are many stories to how Maud came to live in her tiny home the most popular belief is that Maud's response to a notice Everett posted at the store for a "live in" that also lead to their marriage in 1938. The tiny home the Lewis' shared for over 30 years had no electricity and therefore no T.V.... to bring the outside world in until she was giving a small battery operated portable radio. There was no indoor plumbing, the only heat was provided by a large wood burning stove. The house was 4.1 m by 3.8 m with a very small sleeping loft at the top of the stairs. Her health restricted her physical mobility so much that as an adult she rarely left her home, or even the corner where she painted by the window. The painting's of Maud Lewis were painted for the joy of adding color and fun to a quiet, rural life. she painted a huge number of paintings depicting a charming rural life full of flowers, cats, colorful teams of oxen, sleigh rides, birds, and deer. These were painted on small pieces of wood pulpboard, often ill measured. She painted with whatever could be obtained--oil based house paints, boat paint, and cheap hobby paint. She used poor quality brushes whose hair can often be found embedded in the paint of the pictures. The paintings were sold from her home for as little as $2.50. Some where sold at local store and as her popularity grew so did the prices of her art pieces, therefore she could buy better materials and paints. She also painted cards which Everett sold from his wagon when he made fish deliveries. Shells and beach stones were painted for sales to tourist.

"Although she was not a formally trained artist, Maud's work demonstrates that she had a strong sense of composition, learned from close observation of any visual material that came her way--postcards, calendars, greeting cards. Her paintings solve difficult composition problems in depicting perspective and presenting images that invite exploration. Her early paintings are quite complex in arrangement as she tackles harbour scenes, rolling farmland, and countryside.

Later works are often more simplified in design, the colours richer and in flat application. This may be because as demand for the work grew she worked faster and more simply or, that simplicity came with failing health and mobility. It may also be the result of the maturing of a style approaching a more abstract vision. When she made an image that she particularly liked or that others requested she made many variations on the theme."

Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia. Lewis lived most of her life in poverty in a small house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, achieving national recognition in 1964 and 1965. Several books, plays and films have since been produced about her. Lewis remains one of Canada's best-known folk artists; her works and the restored Maud Lewis House are displayed in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

MAUD LEWIS: "I paint all from memory, I don’t copy much. Because I don’t go nowhere, I just make my own designs up."

Maud Kathleen Dowley was born about March 7, 1903 in South Ohio, Yarmouth county, Nova Scotia. She was the only daughter of John Dowley and Agnes Germain. She had 2 brothers who died in infancy as well as older brother Charles. [1]

She was born with birth defects and ultimately developed rheumatoid arthritis, which reduced her mobility, twisting her hands and joints and since she felt awkward with other children, she eldom played with anyone. She was raised with a love of music and art, and her mother encouraged her to paint postcards as a child. Maud sold some of these for 5 cents while peddling them door to door.

Maud fell in love with Emery Gordon Allen and when he learned of her pregnancy, he abandoned her to the scandal of small-town life and to her increasing disabilities and loneliness. She gave birth to daughter, Catherine Maud Dowley in 1928 but was told it was a boy and that he was dead. The baby girl was adopted shortly afterward by Alvin Alexander Crosby and Mary E Porter.

Many years later, her grown daughter contacted Maud but the artist wanted nothing to do with her explaining 'My child was a boy born dead. I'm not your mother,' and at the time there were three grandchildren. Maud never accepted her child even though she attempted to contact Maud again in a letter. ”[2]

In 1935 Maud's father died and in 1937, her mother followed. As was typical at the time, her brother inherited the family home and after living with him for a short while, she moved to Digby to live with her maternal aunt, Ida and it was there that she met Everett Lewis, an itinerant fish peddler.

"Over the years, Evertt told a number of different stories about his courtship with Maud. In the version he liked to repeat most often, Maud walked all the way from her aunt's home in Digby, Nova Scotia to his one room house in answer an ad. Evertt, a forty-four year old bachelor at the time, had placed the ad in local stores looking for a housekeeper. Apparently Maud refused to be a live-in housekeeper and insisted that they would have to marry, if she were to come to keep his house. As Evertt tells the story, he was initially 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."[3] Maud married Everett Lewis on January 16, 1938 in Barton, Yarmouth county, Nova Scotia. She signed her name and he made his mark X. Both stated that they were 35 years of age. Witnesses were Lillian Lewis and Hazel Albright, both residents of Barton.[4]

Despite the deep affliction of painful, at times debilitating rheumatoid arthritis which plagued her most of her life, Maud completed and sold thousands of bright paintings Christmas cards from her little one-room house in Marshalltown,

On July 30, 1970, Maud died of pneumonia in the General Hospital in Digby, Digby county, Nova Scotia and she was buried in a child's coffin on August 1st in North Range Cemetery in North Range, Digby county with husband Everett placing her maiden name - Maud Dowley - at the bottom of the Lewis family stone.[5]

"Digby Courier: Maude Lewis will paint no more pictures Death on Thursday claimed the life of one who, though painfully crippled with arthritis, bore her afflictions with fortitude and courage and shed beams of sunshine in the homes of others." Miss Myrtle Ingersoll of the Barton Baptist Church was the officiating clergy at Maude’s funeral. “Speaking of the departed artist, Miss Ingersoll said she made a great contribution in the world under great difficulty and at great cost. She brought sunshine to a lot of people through her talent. Miss Ingersoll said and will be remembered by more than the people around the immediate area.”[6] Digby Courier: About This and That - The Passing of Maude In the passing of Maude Lewis, Digby’s primitive and widely acclaimed artist, there has been removed from our midst one of the most unique combinations of humility and greatness. But the memory of this wisp of a woman will, without a doubt, linger long and will continue to supply writers’ copy and artists’ conversation. Digby Courier Editorial: November 25, 1965: “All Canada will hear the name of Digby tonight all because of one wisp of a lady living humbly by the side of the road in Marshalltown, some four miles away. Probably no better time of the year could have been chosen to have the name of Maude Lewis flashed on the T.V. screen all across Canada. We are so near to Christmas which is in itself the story of meekness, humbleness and greatness combined and that is the kind of story we have on Maude Lewis.” Today with the sixty-seven year old lady gone to her eternal rest, the editorial quoted above can serve for her obituary. Maude died as she lived with newspapers, radio and T.V. announcing her death and her real life and death still being surrounded by the same meekness and humbleness which was characteristic of her entire years. Maude still remained shy and unpretentious, having not been affected by any of the pomp and glory accorded here by the outside world. Maude was amazing. Those who had not seen her admired her primitive paintings all unspoiled by formal education, but those who had seen her crippled with painful arthritis had also to admire her strength of character, her patient bearing of her affliction and her peaceful contentment with that which life meted out to her. The passing of Maude has left a vacancy. Her passing has left a void in Digby’s chain of events and characteristics but Digby will remember Maude. The same can be said for her sorrowing husband Everett. Maude’s passing has left a vacancy in the humble cottage by the roadside, for it was plain to be seen that while material abundance was not evident, there was a great bond of love and admiration between the famous humble artist and her constant companion for more than thirty-four years."[6] Research Notes

1) Cannot find source documentation for day and month of birth, but 1938 marriage certificate notes she is 35 at the time of marriage, and numerous secondary sources have March 7, 1903 as her birth date. Additionally, 1911 Canadian census has date of birth as March, 1901, but parents' birth dates on it are also different than other documentation, and 1921 census has Maud's age listed as 18. Added birth date as 'uncertain' until primary documentation confirms.

2) She was born Maud Catherine but sometime between the birth of her daughter Catherine Maud in 1928 and her marriage to Everett Lewis in 1938, she began going by Maud Kathleen.[7]

Sources

↑ Census of Canada 1911 ↑ The Heart on the Door: Biography of Maud ↑ http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2011/01/evertts-painting-and-... ↑ Maud's Marriage Record ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #178625867 ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://www.saltwire.com/lifestyles/maud-lewis-death-as-noted-in-th... ↑ http://www.lancewoolaver.ca/spencer-books-ships-books-to-mauds-family/ Census of Canada 1921 SEE ALSO:

Wikipedia:Maud_Lewis Canadian Encyclopedia: Maud Lewis Art Gallery of Nova Scotia: Maud Lewis YOU TUBE:

CBC Archives: 1965 Maud Lewis Maud Lewis: A Canadian Folk Artist A World Without Shadows Renaissance of a Nova Scotia Folk Artist MEMORIALS:

Maud Lewis Memorial Park https://heritageday.novascotia.ca/content/2019-honouree-maud-lewis