A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis

Maud Lewis is an icon of Canadian folk art. I learned some of the details of her fascinating story from the wonderful 2017 film Maudie starring Sally Hawkins in the title role. Now well-known children’s author Kathy Stinson has chosen to collaborate with illustrator Lauren Soloy to create this lovely picture book biography about Lewis’ life

Maud Lewis was afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis from a young age (although her disease was not diagnosed early). It stunted her growth and severely limited her physical activity. Even indoor pursuits were a problem for her. Although she loved to play the piano, her disability came to curb that pleasure too.
…as her hands grew more bent and her fingers more stiff,
sweet music turned sour.
“I can’t do this!” Maud banged on the keys.
“Come, her mother said. “Let’s see if you can
hold a paintbrush.”

Thus began a wonderful lifelong relationship with paint as inspired by the forms of nature. She observed “Shapes. Lines. Colours. Everywhere!” Painting provided an outlet for Maud’s talents, but, as she moved into adulthood, more difficulties arose. She was unable to find a job, and, after the death of her parents, she was forced to move in with an aunt whose restrictions were hard to live with.

Do this. Don’t do that. Do this. Don’t do that.
Maud needed a home where she would be treated
like an adult and accepted for who she was.

She did finally get a job as housekeeper to a somewhat curmudgeonly fish peddler named Everett Lewis – “as gruff as a billy goat, his house as dreary as a dishpan of dirty water” – who eventually became her husband. She continued to be obsessed with painting. Lack of income for the couple often necessitated scrounging for paint, but Maud never gave up creating art, using house paint or marine paint when that was all that was available. Everett came to be a strong supporter of her efforts.

Maud painted old times, happy times, village, country,
and seaside scenes, and all the beauty she has seen in nature.
She painted on walls, windows, doors, shelves, trays,
breadboxes, tea canisters, the dustpan…
Even the woodstove!

She became recognized locally, and then more widely, for the little vignettes painted on card or board which she sold out of her house.

Eventually her arthritis took over, and she was only able to go out to see the flowers and smell the air if Everett pushed her in his wheelbarrow – which he did! She died in 1970 at the age of sixty-seven.

Soloy’s illustrations are simple, rendered with thick, opaque strokes that call up the rough nature of the materials available to Lewis. Both the Maritime scenes and the brightly-coloured representations of Lewis’ work are charmingly primitivist.

An afterword which fleshes out Lewis’ remarkable life story also provides two notes, one from the author, one from the illustrator, about their inspiration to produce the book.

A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis will likely not be a first choice for an individual child to pick up, but it would be a strong contender as an introduction to a primary art lesson or to read with a budding artist.