Artist.
Born at Winnipeg in 1934 to Esther Margaret Nepon (1910-1990) and Abraham Shaw (1912-2004), she grew up with her brother and a large extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins in the city's north end. After a brief courtship, she married Allan “Sonny” Yale Levitt (1930-1983) in 1953. Their first child died at three of Tay-Sachs disease. They adopted their second child in 1958. After Levitt’s death, she married photographer John Edward Hays (1954-2019) in 1985.
Through the 1960s, she devoted herself to her home and family, indulging her passion for art at home and in classes at the Forum Art Institute. In the 1970s, she immersed herself in art by enrolling in the Fine Arts Program at the University of Manitoba. There she was able to develop her talent, working with different media and styles until finding that her real expertise lay in realism. After graduating she worked full time in her studio producing a series of life size portraits and numerous commissions, receiving several Art's Council grants. Two of her commissions are permanently hanging in the Manitoba Legislative Building. In the 1980s, she became active in CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation), fundraising and promoting local artists and their work. She served two years as the President of CARFAC Manitoba and sat on the Manitoba Arts Council.
Her love of animals inspired her to begin “The Driftnet,” a series depicting the devastation of driftnet fishing. The series consists of three paintings of sea animals and a 48-foot canvas of a driftnet under water. This one-woman show was the last of the public displays of her work. In the late 1990s, Alzheimers began to take its toll and she gradually stopped working.
She died at Winnipeg on 12 November 2006.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 18 November 2006.
“Luella Levitt (born Shaw),” MyHeritage Family Trees.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 5 February 2024
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