About
SYNOPSIS
MAUDIE, is based on the true story of folk artist Maud Lewis (Sally Hawkins) and the unlikely romance between Maud and a hardened reclusive bachelor, Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke).
Maud, a bright-eyed, intelligent woman, hunched with crippled hands from arthritis, yearns to be independent and to live away from her overly protective family. She escapes her solitary existence in her aunt's home through her art, dreaming away the days, until in her early 30s she finds, and answers, an advertisement for a housekeeper.
Everett Lewis is a 40 year old bachelor who owes nothing to anyone. Tall, skinny and shabby, abandoned by his parents at a very young age, he has nevertheless managed to become a proud and self-sufficient man, largely by collecting scraps and peddling fish. He lives in a 10x12 foot house that has neither running water nor electricity, but at least it's all his. He is his own boss and has everything he needs, except maybe a woman to clean the house and cook his meals.
When Maud answers the ad, Everett hesitates at first. Seeing this strange looking woman - short, hunched over, with gnarled up hands and two huge bright brown eyes, he can't imagine she can handle the hard work. She is determined though and refuses to leave, so he hires her, but remains wary.
She talks too much, has too many opinions, is a terrible housekeeper and keeps talking marriage whenever he tries to have sex. She spends most of her time painting doodles on cardboard and the walls of his house. Everett realizes he hardly got what he bargained for. But over time, Everett starts to need Maud. When she isn't near him, his life is dull and grey. She understands him in a way that no one ever has and she loves being needed by him. Their bond grows deep and unspoken. She continues to paint. He begins to take over the housework. When they realize people will actually buy her cards and paintings, he supports and encourages her.
Maudie's determination for her art, along with her partnership with Everett, blossoms into a career as a famous folk artist, bringing them closer together in ways they never imagined.
MAUD LEWIS: HER LIFE AND ART
Maud Lewis exemplified the simple life. But simple doesn't mean dull. The simplicity of her paintings, brushed initially with scrounged paint from local fishermen onto ubiquitous green boards and post cards, continue to evoke feelings of innocence, of child-like exuberance as enduring as the spring times she loved to paint. And today she still captures audiences intrigued by everyday scenes as diverse as hard- working oxen and whimsical butterflies.
Maud Dowley Lewis was born March 7, 1903 in South Ohio, a community near Yarmouth. Her father Jack would provide a moderately prosperous living as a respected craftsman, making harnesses and serving as a blacksmith. Agnes, her mother, favored artistic pursuits including painting, folk carving and music. Born disfigured with sloped shoulders and her chin resting on her chest, Maud led a confined but happy home life after she quit school at 14, perhaps in part to escape the mocking of her peers. "What is life without love or friendship?" she once confided to a friend. Her mother lovingly taught her to play the piano before juvenile rheumatoid arthritis crippled her hands. Physical deformity may have been her lot, but even more tragic was the loss of both her parents within two years. Who would care for Maud? Thankfully, an aunt who lived in Digby took her in. There she would later answer a newspaper ad that would determine the course of her life. A man named Everett Lewis wanted a housekeeper for his cottage in Marshalltown. She married him in 1938 at the age of thirty-four and would never travel more than an hour's drive from her birthplace. "I ain't much for traveling anyway," she said later, "as long as I have a brush in my hand and a window in front of me, I'm all right." Cameo cigarettes added their share of comfort as well.
Although short in stature with hands gnarled by arthritis as the years passed, she stood tall when she plied her brush over green-backed particle board. Everett Lewis, a stingy, parsimonious but certainly hard- working man, kept house and made meals allowing Maud to spend most of her time delving into her world of wonder and creating fanciful works of art. Maud gathered images from her happy childhood and limited excursions in a Model T with Everett to paint cheerful images on dust pans, scallop shells and even on her house. They would settle into a routine where Everett enjoyed peddling and haggling over the paintings Maud would love to paint. The happiness she painted first attracted neighbors, then tourists and eventually even international attention. It started with a Star Weekly newspaper article and then a 1965 CBC Telescope program featuring her unique works. Her notoriety began to bloom like the cherry trees that garnished several of her paintings. Orders came in so fast that the paint hardly had time to dry--one reason you may notice fingerprints on some edges of her paintings.
Her style became as fanciful as her subjects. She painted a world often without shadows, autumn leaves on
winter landscapes, and even 3- legged oxen. Was she adding humour in her subtle, shy way? Her gentle nature
and magnetic smile might give that away. Awkwardly bent over a painting, she may have been squinting and
intense, but her inner joy escaped onto her panels with unrivalled determination and vitality. Small wonder her
work garnered the attention of even the Nixon White House. Ever pragmatic, Maud wrote to ask that funds be
forwarded before she sent the requested two panels to the President!
Today her work unequivocally demands status as "important art" in numerous fine-art collections around the
world.
Much like her American counterpart, Anna Marie Robertson (Grandma Moses), Maud was uniquely creative, self-taught, specialized in painting everyday rural life, loved animals and appreciated the beauty of nature. Both initially sold their paintings for just a few dollars, but saw their work increase dramatically over the years. The works of Grandma Moses command prices in the $30,000 to $600,000 range. Of comparable quality, Maud's paintings currently fetch $6,000 to$20,000, holding much promise for the future.
Not formally trained, Maud adopted a style that emerged from inside the heart of a true artist. As such, she could produce images of enduring quality and appeal, images that transformed her maritime surroundings into painted visions. The irresistible charm of her art had triumphed over the arrows of adversity.