Oh, my, what a thrill to discover the marvelous folk artist Maud Lewis, during our recent trip to Nova Scotia. From Halifax we had driven to Digby to eat scallops, which I love & Digby is famous for, and to go to whale watching on a boat out of nearby Brier Island (lots of humpback whales!). Along the way we discovered the Maud Lewis Memorial in Marshalltown that is built on the site of the tiny one-room house she shared with her husband Everett, a fish peddler. There Maud Lewis painted almost every surface of the interior – – windows, walls, doors, plus basins and a dust pan- – with vividly colorful flowers, cats, birds, horses, oxen, and excursions, including sleigh rides. The memorial includes an abstract replica of her home (see photo), a plaque, and beautiful garden. Nearby there’s a sign pointing to Maud Lewis Lane. Although we weren’t planning to return to Halifax, we did once we learned that the original house is in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (see phot0). Photographs of Maud with her magnetic smile reveal that that her arms and fingers are twisted and gnarled, perhaps due to birth defects or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
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