On the ADJA Studio and Gallery Facebook page, Andrew Danylewich commented on how the Maud Lewis painting reminds him of the 'Grumpy Cat' meme.
Three hours.
Three hours is all it took for Andrew Danylewich to find a buyer for an authentic Maud Lewis painting he was tasked to sell.
The Liverpool based goldsmith and painter had been asked by a friend to sell the painting through his gallery, ADJA Studio and Gallery, which sells jewelry and paintings made by himself and other South Shore locals.
With not much experience selling highly collectible pieces, he decided to post a photo of the painting on Instagram with the hashtags #maudlewis, #novascotia and #painting.
A few hours later, that’s when it happened.
“A collector saw it, and contacted me about three hours after I posted it,” said Danylewich, “They came the next day to see it, liked what they saw, and that was that. A done deal.”
Danylewich had hoped to feature the painting in his gallery for a little while, but he only had it in his possession for less than 24 hours.
“I was actually hoping to have it a little longer,” he chuckled, “So people would come into the gallery and take a look at it, but at the same time take in the work that I have here by local artists. It happened so quick, no one got a chance to see it.”
It happened so quick, as a matter of fact, that Danylewich only got two photos of it, one announcing it for sale and another to state it was sold.
Danylewich had never dealt with a Maud Lewis painting before, but he figured it would grab a lot of attention.
Famous throughout Canada for her folk art, Lewis spent most of her life living in a tiny house in Marshalltown, N.S. with her husband.
Throughout her adult years, Lewis decorated her home with her own paintings, and spent the last year of her life sitting in the corner, painting as much as she could before passing in 1970.
A large collection of Lewis’ paintings, as well as her original house, are on display at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, but many are still being bought up by collectors and sold at auction, including one found in an Ontario thrift store in 2016, called A Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, which sold for $45,000.
Danylewich’s gallery usually only represents living artists who are mostly local, so dealing with a piece from a famous artist such as Lewis was a totally new experience – One he said would gladly go through again.
“I might be getting another one in a couple of weeks, actually,” said Danylewich
“I don’t know if it will sell as fast. It could, but it depends on who sees it and whether they want it. This fella didn’t have this particular one in his collection, so he was really keen on it, that’s all. So I really don’t know how the next one will go.”
While Danylewich did not identify the buyer, he did confirm the painting was sold for $13,000.
Reported by: Cody McEachern
Twitter: @CodyInHiFi
E-mail: mceachern.cody@radioabl.ca
