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Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis
Maud Lewis was born into a loving Nova Scotia family who accepted her physical limitations. When her parents died and she was forced to find her own way in the world, she married and set up a modest household in a small cabin. Despite the hardships she faced, she was able to find joy in her life, a joy that she expressed through her art. She painted canvases of animals, children, and her surroundings. Her art spilled over into everything from dust pans to the walls of her house. Maud Lewis died in 1970, but her wonderful, life-affirming art lives on and is treasured by people who understand and appreciate folk art all over the world.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
32 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 2002
94 people want to read
About the author
Jo Ellen Bogart
26 books11 followersJo Ellen Bogart has written 20 books for young readers, including The White Cat and the Monk, which was named a Best Poetry Book by the National Council of teachers of English. Her bestselling books include Jeremiah Learns to Read, Daniel's Dog, and Gifts. Jo Ellen has won the Ruth Schwartz Award and has been shortlisted for the Mr. Christie's Book Award.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 16, 2024
To be perfectly honest here, unfortunately (as well as rather frustratingly unexpectedly I do have to admit), there most definitely is for me and in my humble opinion a very hugely problematic and annoying caesura between what author Jo Ellen Bogart writes about Nova Scotia artist Maud Lewis' life and the accompanying artwork to be found (and to be discovered) in the 2002 picture book Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis (and yes, said visuals consist of Mark Lane's black and white drawings as well as also showcasing more than twelve photographed examples of Lewis' actual paintings). For indeed, albeit in particular the (and very much personally appreciated) inclusions of Maud Lewis' brightly coloured, delightfully naive and always visually celebratory folk art in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis) truly aesthetically, truly delightfully demonstrate Lewis' penchant to with her painting (with her brush and with the colours she is using) precisely be doing what the book title implies, to always be capturing joy and delightfulness and equally showing that Maud's married life with her husband Everrett might have been beset by want and poverty but was also happy and filled with brightness, with artistic loveliness (and that Mark Lane's illustrations of Maud Lewis and her family do certainly, do definitely give very nicely realistic and visually loving and tender portraits), sorry, but Jo Ellen Bogart's text for Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis, it does at least in my opinion do no such thing in fact, since well, what Bogart has penned about Lewis' life in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis, this might be generally decently enough correct regarding basic biographical facts but is also making not only some pretty infuriating author assumptions but is even at times getting things rather wrong (and as such and in my opinion not at all even remotely and in any way all that successfully mirroring either Lane's pictures or Maud Lewis' own joyfulness promoting and depicting paintings).
Because after recently having read Kathy Stinson's and Lauren Soloy's 2023 A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis (and where Stinson verbally and Soloy illustratively both tenderly and very much believably demonstrate that Maud and Everrett Lewis' marriage was pretty much successful and even generally speaking decently happy, with Everrett always encouraging his wife to paint not only pictures but to also decorate every nook and cranny of their domicile and seemingly always catering to Maud's many physical challenges, to her arthritic hands, short and hunched stature etc.), yes, I do and majorly so tend find how Jo Ellen Bogart is rather too much and too often in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis textually harshly deriding and denigrating Everrett Lewis as being a stingy miser both needlessly nasty and also kind wrong in and of itself. For what I have read not only in A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis but also online is plainly and simply that the Lewises were pretty poor, so that Maud's husband was not actually miserly but instead by necessity economical and was also very good at finding paint and canvasses for Maud to use for her art, that Everrett Lewis did thus not really keep money from his wife like an actual miser would be doing, but that there was simply not a lot of cash available and that Everrett did what he could to find useful and adequate art supplies for his wife, and that this is in my humble opinion not at all the rather negative portrait of the stingy miserly husband which Jo Ellen Bogart tries to textually pass off in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis as being authentic and truthful, and that her words to that end thus and certainly do make me feel both uncomfortable and also frustrated and even more than a trifle angry regarding the textuality and the veracity of the written contents of Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis.
And combined with the fact that the timeline used in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis (starting in the middle and then meandering into the past and then back into the present) is rather distracting and that I also find it textually annoying and actually pretty distasteful to have to read about how supposedly "kind" Maud Lewis' aunt was (and according to Jo Ellen Bogart's pen for Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis) when Maud's parents died (as according to my personal research and also to A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis Maud's aunt was in fact so totally and absolutely against her niece's artistic endeavours that she did not permit Maud from painting anywhere in the house and actually would only consider giving Maud a home at all if she no longer painted and no longer used art), no, I really have to say that I have actually majorly despised what Bogart is writing about Maud Lewis' life (or rather about some major and important aspects of Lewis' life) and that my three star rating for Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is actually primarily for the artwork (as verbally, as textually speaking, Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is and only can be a very low and annoyed two star rating, and probably if push were to come to actual and bona fide shove so to speak only a one star rating).
Because after recently having read Kathy Stinson's and Lauren Soloy's 2023 A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis (and where Stinson verbally and Soloy illustratively both tenderly and very much believably demonstrate that Maud and Everrett Lewis' marriage was pretty much successful and even generally speaking decently happy, with Everrett always encouraging his wife to paint not only pictures but to also decorate every nook and cranny of their domicile and seemingly always catering to Maud's many physical challenges, to her arthritic hands, short and hunched stature etc.), yes, I do and majorly so tend find how Jo Ellen Bogart is rather too much and too often in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis textually harshly deriding and denigrating Everrett Lewis as being a stingy miser both needlessly nasty and also kind wrong in and of itself. For what I have read not only in A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis but also online is plainly and simply that the Lewises were pretty poor, so that Maud's husband was not actually miserly but instead by necessity economical and was also very good at finding paint and canvasses for Maud to use for her art, that Everrett Lewis did thus not really keep money from his wife like an actual miser would be doing, but that there was simply not a lot of cash available and that Everrett did what he could to find useful and adequate art supplies for his wife, and that this is in my humble opinion not at all the rather negative portrait of the stingy miserly husband which Jo Ellen Bogart tries to textually pass off in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis as being authentic and truthful, and that her words to that end thus and certainly do make me feel both uncomfortable and also frustrated and even more than a trifle angry regarding the textuality and the veracity of the written contents of Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis.
And combined with the fact that the timeline used in Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis (starting in the middle and then meandering into the past and then back into the present) is rather distracting and that I also find it textually annoying and actually pretty distasteful to have to read about how supposedly "kind" Maud Lewis' aunt was (and according to Jo Ellen Bogart's pen for Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis) when Maud's parents died (as according to my personal research and also to A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis Maud's aunt was in fact so totally and absolutely against her niece's artistic endeavours that she did not permit Maud from painting anywhere in the house and actually would only consider giving Maud a home at all if she no longer painted and no longer used art), no, I really have to say that I have actually majorly despised what Bogart is writing about Maud Lewis' life (or rather about some major and important aspects of Lewis' life) and that my three star rating for Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is actually primarily for the artwork (as verbally, as textually speaking, Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is and only can be a very low and annoyed two star rating, and probably if push were to come to actual and bona fide shove so to speak only a one star rating).
August 3, 2011
Reason for Reading: I'm a fan of picture book biographies and Maud Lewis is a favourite Canadian artist of mine.
Maud Lewis is a Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia. She is often known as what is commonly called an "outsider" artist as she painted for the pure joy of it, on anything she got her hands on, despite her physical limitations, without any formal training and though she did sell her paintings it was more because the buyers sought her out than she sought to find buyers.
This is a lovely little biography with just enough information to give anyone a brief introduction to Maud Lewis' life and artwork. For the majority of the book every right-hand side page includes a photographic reproduction of one of Maud's paintings giving a well rounded look at several of her styles and themes. An entertaining book that could easily cause an older reader to want to explore Maud's work and life in greater length and detail. A great addition to shelves on Canadian artists.
Maud Lewis is a Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia. She is often known as what is commonly called an "outsider" artist as she painted for the pure joy of it, on anything she got her hands on, despite her physical limitations, without any formal training and though she did sell her paintings it was more because the buyers sought her out than she sought to find buyers.
This is a lovely little biography with just enough information to give anyone a brief introduction to Maud Lewis' life and artwork. For the majority of the book every right-hand side page includes a photographic reproduction of one of Maud's paintings giving a well rounded look at several of her styles and themes. An entertaining book that could easily cause an older reader to want to explore Maud's work and life in greater length and detail. A great addition to shelves on Canadian artists.
April 20, 2018
I had never heard of Maud Lewis until I checked out this picture book about her art and her life. She is said to be the Canadian version of Grandma Moses, who was also famous for her folk art.
The book would be especially nice to read to students since a number of conversations could be generated from this story.
The book would be especially nice to read to students since a number of conversations could be generated from this story.
March 9, 2012
Maud Lewis was a Canadian folk artist whose struggle with poverty and physical disabilities is inspiring to many.
This book captures Maud's life as a wife and artist, and shows how throughout all her struggles she was still able to paint joyful pieces, even covering her tiny one room cabin with paintings. The colours of Maud's paintings included in this book are bright and appealing to children. The illustrator, Mark Lang, gives a great amount of detail into her struggles as he illustrates the hardships of her life.
This book captures Maud's life as a wife and artist, and shows how throughout all her struggles she was still able to paint joyful pieces, even covering her tiny one room cabin with paintings. The colours of Maud's paintings included in this book are bright and appealing to children. The illustrator, Mark Lang, gives a great amount of detail into her struggles as he illustrates the hardships of her life.
July 28, 2011
A wondeful book to read to your little aspiring artists.
October 19, 2017
Story just wasn't that compelling. Best thing this book has going is the black and white contrasting pages across from beautiful color pages which feature the subject's artwork.
November 29, 2020
I like reading about Maud Lewis and seeing her paintings but this book seemed to focus on pointing out what it thinks Maud got wrong in her paintings. I love her art and to find out she was creating this beauty with multiple disabilities is admirable and should be praised not criticized. Art is art.
March 9, 2024
This is the second picture book I have read about Maude Lewis, the Canadian folk artist, the other was A Tulip in Winter which was my introduction to Lewis’s work. Capturing Joy is my preferred title of the two because it contains more biographical information and it is illustrated with actual paintings one by Lewis. Each of the paintings illustrated are owned by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. This is a great brief intro the life and works of Maude Lewis for children as well as adults.
September 12, 2021
sweet book about a primitive artist in Canada-
March 25, 2022
I fell in love with this artist and her amazing life. Therefore, I was super excited to get my own copy of this book. It is beautiful! I look forward to reading it again and again.
November 9, 2022
Delightful picture book biography of Maud Lewis, the Novia Scotia folk artist. Good to learn some of the backstory for her cheerful paintings.
November 19, 2022
Beautiful prints of Maud's paintings.
June 17, 2019
After watching the biographical film, Maudie (2016), I was intrigued that although I recognized some of Maud Lewis’ artwork, I really didn’t know anything about her. Picture books are a wonderful way to introduce any child to an artist’s work. This book is very special because it includes Lewis’ background accompanied by black and white drawings by provided by illustrator, Mark Lang. The contrasting styles of Lewis and Lang create a beautiful book commemorating a remarkable folk artist.
December 4, 2022
Maud Lewis had such an interesting life; this was a wonderful introductory story for children to learn about her and her paintings.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews