The Painted House of Maud Lewis

Rescuing the tiny house of Canada's most beloved folk artist. Maud Lewis painted the whole interior of her tiny one-room house -- not just the walls, but the doors inside and out, the windowpanes, the breadboxes, the little staircase to the sleeping loft, the woodstove . . . almost everything her hand touched. Her home was a joy to behold. Fourteen years after Maud's death, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia acquired the Painted House, famous by then but badly deteriorated. Conservators faced unique challenges as they stabilized and restored this valuable artefact. In 1998, they installed it intact in the custom-designed Scotiabank Maud Lewis Gallery, complete with furnishings, painting materials, and everything else that made up Maud Lewis's diminutive dwelling.