Beloved Maritime musician Fleur Mainville lost her battle with cancer in January, at the age of 37. Now, one of her many friends has commissioned a painting in hopes of helping her family.

Mainville was a fiddler, radio host and farm market manager and was known as the flower of Pictou County, N.S.

Stu Marchand, one of Mainville’s musician friends, was working out West when he received word of her passing.

“I was a little bummed out and really wanted to do something nice for Fleur, just cause she's done so much for me, and for everybody, really, in the music scene,” says Marchand.

Marchand commissioned Fort McMurray artist Russell Thomas to paint a portrait of Mainville. The original was presented to her husband Andrew and their two young children.

After putting a picture or two on social media sites, Facebook and Twitter, Russell put up a couple as well, there was a lot of public interest of people wanting a copy or a print of it,” says Marchand.

The Advocate Printing Company produced a hundred prints of the painting, at next to no cost. Those prints are for sale, with all proceeds going to Mainville's family.

“This painting is a beautiful tribute and a beautiful likeness to Fleur, still so hard to believe that she's gone,” says Geralyn MacDonald, director of community development.

“Not having her smiling face welcome you coming into the market, certainly you feel that,” says market manager Carlton Munroe. “And getting into the festival season, where you would see Fleur on pretty much every stage in the county, just around the corner, it's really hitting home again, I think for everyone.”

Like so many musicians she worked with, Marchand says Mainville was always there for him.

“Not only as a musician, but as a friend,” says Marchand. “I just felt like we lost a huge pillar in the community and in the industry.”

Marchand hopes all the prints will sell and the proceeds given to Mainville’s family before the end of the summer.

Prints are available to purchase at a few locations, including at Glasgow Square and the deCoste Entertainment Centre in Pictou.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh