Maria Stewart

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

Maria Stewart was born in 1923, in the village of Dornesti, Romania. At the start of World War II her family was repatriated to Germany and they settled in a farming community near Essingen. After the war, Stewart went to study in Berlin, then to the University Hospital in Mainz where she qualified as a midwife. Her interest in nursing brought her to Fort San, in Saskatchewan's Qu'Appelle Valley. After marrying, she and her husband Harry Steward moved to Swift Current. It was there that Maria Stewart first attended pottery workshops, as well as at the Summer School of the Arts in Fort Qu'Appelle. She went on to teach batik, quilting and pottery throughout the province, and was a founding member of the Swift Current Art Council in the 1970s. In 1992, she was presented with a Commemorative Medal for the 125th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in recognition of her contributions to her community. Maria Stewart died in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in May 2021.