Joe Norris is described as "the Dean of Nova Scotia folk painters" and "the Matisse of folk art". Joe spent most of his life in the small hamlet of Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia. After working in the fishing and construction trades, Joe Norris started painting when a severe heart attack forced him into early retirement in 1972. By 1975, when he was "discovered" by antique dealer Chris Huntington, he was selling paintings to local people and to the occasional tourist.

His work includes painted chairs, tables and chests as well as paintings, and is found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and in many corporate and private art collec...