Maud Lewis was a Canadian folk artist known for her distinctively flat and brightly colored paintings. Her small-scale depictions of animals and landscapes formed decorative microcosms of rural Canadian life. “As long as I've got a brush in front of me, I'm alright,” she once said. Born Maud Kathleen Dowley on March 7, 1903 in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, the artist spent much of her childhood alone, suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis among other crippling birth defects. Maud’s mother introduced her to watercolors as a child, encouraging her to make Christmas cards to sell. While living in Digby, the artist became involved with a man who left her after she gave birth to a daughter Catherine Dowley. Catherine was...