Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MAUD LEWIS
By far the most well-known and beloved folk artist in Nova Scotia is Maud Lewis.
Lewis, born in 1903, was uncommonly small, had almost no chin and suffered from
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She spent much of her childhood alone and she nev-
er traveled beyond Yarmouth and Digby counties. After being left with no money
once her parents died in the 1930s, she married Everett Lewis and the couple
spent the rest of their lives in a roughly 12ft by 12ft house. But what a house it was!
Lewis painted every surface with colorful, happy scenes of the life and community
around her, making what many would have considered a place of poverty into a
beautiful piece of beguiling art. In 1984, 14 years after Lewis passed away, the
house was bought by the province of Nova Scotia as a landmark; it was restored in
1996. Since 2008 the entire house can be seen in the heart-wrenching Maud Lewis
Room at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Bring a hanky.
But Maud's artistic endeavors didn't end with her house. She began her career
making Christmas cards as a child and as an adult she was an incredibly prolific
painter. The small, often 8in by 10in paintings she sold out of her house back in the
1950s for $2 are now sold at auction for up to $22,000. Lewis, who never sold a
painting for more than $10, would have hardly believed it.
Marine Inspired Art
Nearly any artist who has spent time in these provinces could be slotted into this cat-
egory for at least some of their work. And really, how can you paint, sculpt or get creat-
ive here without getting inspiration from the surrounding sea that provides jobs, food,
briny smells and a never-ending calming swish that rocks your ears to sleep?
Halifax native John O'Brien (1831-91) was one of the best known artists of the region
in his generation; he painted detailed, realistic seascapes that have greatly helped histori-
ans studying maritime history. Next came Edith Smith, who held the position of Arts
Mistress at Halifax Ladies College for nearly 40 years; she was influential in many
artists' education, the shaping of the first collections for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
(AGNS), and most importantly for her masterful realist seascape, landscape and portrait
paintings. One of the artists Edith Smith chose for the AGNS collections was Arthur Lis-
mer, another Haligonian who first made his name painting WWI camouflaged naval
ships in the harbor; he also sketched the Halifax Explosion of 1917. A few years later
Lismer became a part of the 'Group of Seven,' a collaboration of the seven most revered
nature artists at that time in Canada who were (contentiously) promoted as Canada's na-
tional school of painters.
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