Maud Lewis, artist

Born: 7 March 1903 in South Ohio, Nova Scotia

Died: 30 July 1970 in Digby, Nova Scotia

Maud Kathleen Lewis was a Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia.

But life wasn’t easy for her … Lewis suffered from a series of birth defects that left her fingers painfully deformed, her shoulders hunched and her chin pressed into her chest. Because of this, she spent most of her adult life as a virtual recluse in a cramped one-room house that had no running water or electricity.

For more than three decades she eked out a living rendering colorful oil paintings on things like particleboard, cardboard and wallpaper.

She only sold those for a few dollars each.

But to anyone that knew her, she was sweet, a charming smile and left hundreds of beautiful paintings and artifacts that have been cherished by generations since.

She is also seen as one of the main proprietors of the “folk-art-movement”