Emotional connections to folk art
Self-taught joyous visions of Maritime life
Folk art collector Brock Short poses with one of his prized Joe Norris paintings.
In a way, Brock Short came by his fascination and love of Nova Scotia folk art through the higher education of his children.
“Throughout the 1980s my wife and I were living in Fairfax, Virginia while I was employed as an economist for the International Monetary Fund,” says Brock. “Our two children had chosen to attend their post-secondary education in the Maritimes—Sarah at Mount Allison University and Andrew at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). So we were on the road north several times a year, driving them to and picking them up from their schools.”
The couple fell in love with the region and decided after Brock retired in 1998 to build a cottage on Corkum’s Island, near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Hunting for furniture and artifacts to furnish their rustic home, they’d head out on treasure hunts at fairs, art exhibitions and sales across the province.
Brock Short poses with an assortment of carvings from his folk art collection.
One early excursion found them in a field overlooking Kingsburg Pond, close to the home of auctioneer Chris Huntington. The field was full of folks selling antiques and folk art the day before a major Chris Huntington Folk Art and Antiques auction. Plodding through the field from his car, Brock noticed a man standing by his vehicle displaying several paintings.
The man was no stranger to the world of Maritime folk art. He was well-known Maud Lewis expert and authenticator Alan Deacon and he was selling two of her paintings to finance his European vacation.
Brock’s knowledge of the folk artist was considerable, even during that “pre-Maud frenzy” era, and he bought one of the two paintings. “It was a seashore beauty with seagulls and fishing boats. Maud had used shading in water reflections and the colouring was bright and lovely.”
Brock Short purchased this painting from Alan Deacon, a well-known Maud Lewis expert and authenticator. It is offered as lot 148 in the February 11th Canadian Folk Art auction at Miller & Miller.
Another early acquisition for the eyes-open Brock Short was an exquisite seaside scene by famed Nova Scotia folk artist Joe Norris. Norris had been a lobster fisherman in his early adult years, but a heart attack in the 1980s convinced him to take up less physically-demanding work. Painting filled the bill and Norris brought the world of the harbours, fishing boats and charming villages around Lower Prospect, south of Halifax, to appreciative collectors.
Describing his own work as an alternate vision to "a rough old world,” Norris painted in a steadier hand than Maud Lewis, with fine detail, using vivid colour. But both artists were becoming sought after among collectors of Maritime folk art.
During another treasure hunt while accompanied by his art student son Andrew, Brock stumbled across work by Eddie Mandaggio. Born in northern Manitoba in 1927, the rough-and-ready Eddie worked in lumber camps in Northern Ontario before moving to Nova Scotia. There he began carving and painting, attracting enough attention to be featured in a National Film Board presentation called “Folk Art Found Me”.
This time it was son Andrew doing the buying. He was drawn to a bold image of a buck rising out of the yellow and green background. “We had a cabin in West Virginia and there were lots of deer and they were quite common to see at dusk. When I saw the painting, I was instantly drawn to it.”
White-Tailed Stag By Edward "Eddie" Mandaggio is offered as lot 50 in the upcoming sale.
Brock Short admits he has an emotional connection with the work of Cyril Hirtle. He counts the shy, self-taught Hirtle as one of his favourites among the folk artists of Nova Scotia. Intellectually handicapped, Cyril lived with his sister Gladdy in the family home which doubled as a canteen. It was on Hirtle’s Beach, a popular tourist spot near Kingsburg. Gladdy ran the busy eating spot while Cyril acted as her right hand “potato slicer and fryer”.
When he wasn’t in the kitchen, Cyril gazed out the large windows of the canteen to see the world go by. He’d often pick up brush and canvas and capture the scenes of fishing boats, farmers’ wagons and sailing schooners, each colourful and naïve, without perspective.
“I loved Cyril’s painting that imagined his neighbour falling through the ice in Hirtle’s Pond and I bought it,” laughs Brock, “I’m not sure how the neighbour lost his boots in the pond, but there you go – the world according to Cyril Hirtle!”
But one Hirtle painting wasn’t enough for collector Brock Short. He later picked up another canvas featuring one of the painter’s favourite subjects: the ubiquitous sailing boats and seagulls that were so much a part of the Maritime landscape.
Man with Peavey by Cyril Hirtle is offered as lot 52 in the upcoming sale.
Sailboat With Seagulls By Cyril Hirtle is offered as lot 51.
After Gladdy died, Cyril moved to a long-term care residence close to his home and continued to paint until his passing in 2003. Cyril Hirtle’s work is featured on the Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Folk Art Festival poster, as well as in the 1995 book, A Joyous Vision - Contemporary Folk Art in Nova Scotia.
Folk art painter Cyril Hirtle poses with his Man with Peavey painting, one of the works that Brock Short would later acquire. The original painting is now offered as lot 52 in Miller & Miller’s February 11th auction of Canadian Folk Art.
Art educator Andrew Short calls Cyril Hirtle “one of the most heroic folk artists from Nova Scotia. He created some of the most visionary art in the genre”.
Work by Maud Lewis, Joe Norris, Eddie Mandaggio and Cyril Hirtle are all featured in Miller and Miller’s February 11, 2024 Canadian Folk Art Auction.
By Nancy Silcox
Nancy Silcox, of New Hamburg, is a former teacher and university counsellor. She has written 14 books, most of them historical biographies.
SALE DETAILS:
Canadian Folk Art
February 11, 2024
9am EST