Half of Canadians have negative opinion of latest Liberal budget: poll
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
Hungry for some uplifting news, a man from western Canada stumbled across a story about a painting up for auction. The work by acclaimed Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis had been traded in the 1970s for some grilled cheese sandwiches. Recently, it was valued pre-auction at around $350,000.
“There isn’t much good news out there, and then I came across that little article,” the buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, told CTV News.
“I hadn’t actually heard of Maud Lewis.”
The man bought the painting recently for a record $350,000, which is five times more than any Lewis painting had previously sold for and 10 times the estimated price.
He and his wife had watched a movie about Lewis the night before the auction and say they thought it would be nice to be part of the story behind the painting, which is of a black truck on a rural road.
“For the last four or five years, I was saying to my wife I’m looking for a little black truck and I think I found it,” he said.
The eye-popping price the painting fetched still has collectors all abuzz.
“The galleries that have these things for sale, immediately nothing is for sale because prices are being calibrated,” said Ethan Miller of Miller & Miller Auctions, which listed the painting.
Lewis, who died in 1970, lived much of her life in poverty in a one-room house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. She suffered from debilitating arthritis and sold her paintings on the roadside, often for $5. She scrounged for paint from local fishermen and her works have been described as happy, joyous and childlike. They were often similar with scenes of rural life, including landscapes and wide-eyed cats.
“She was completely untrained but I think that's what people love so much about it,” said Justin Miller, who co-runs the auction house in New Hamburg, Ont.
“As we're coming out of the pandemic, I think people are looking for exciting things, colourful things, fun things,” he said.
Another one of the Lewis’ oil paintings, depicting a pair of oxen, also sold at the auction for $70,000, the second-highest price ever paid for one of her works.
Bill Mayberry is an art dealer who has sold more than 250 of her paintings since the 1980s. He says the sales will probably raise the tide on most of Lewis’ paintings, noting she initially sold her art on Christmas cards for a few cents.
“She would be completely amazed and bewildered by the amount of attention her work has received in recent years. The kind of numbers that she could never even have imagined,” said Mayberry.
The truck painting, one of three known to exist, had been obtained by Irene Demas and her husband Tony nearly 50 years ago. The couple were running a restaurant in London, Ont., and a regular customer was local artist John Kinnear. Kinnear had been helping Lewis with supplies and in return she had sent him several of her paintings. He offered up six of them to Demas in exchange for some lunchtime grilled cheese sandwiches.
“One caught my eye, which was the black truck. It was a very bright, very happy little painting,” said Demas.
“I was pregnant with my son and I thought, it’ll look cute in the baby’s room.”
She only chose the one painting.
Nearly 50 years later, she can’t believe it sold for so much money.
“I wish I had taken all six,” she said with a chuckle.
She hopes the story will draw more attention to Lewis, who spent most of her life in obscurity.
“I think that it’s time that Canadians take more notice of her and appreciate her.”
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their “extremely dangerous” experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
An Ontario senior’s attempt to get technical help online led him into a spoofing scam where he lost $25,000. Now, he’s sharing his story to warn others.
A Minnesota state senator and former broadcast meteorologist told police that she broke into her stepmother's home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to burglary charges filed Tuesday.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.