Pumpkins (Acrylic on Canvas)

I can’t explain it, but for an utterly boring, trite, plebeian, and predictable painting of pumpkins, this is really pretty good.

I can honestly and unironically say that this is, by far, the best painting of pumpkins we’ve ever exhibited here.

Raven (Acrylic on Canvas)

You may think I’ve lost my mind but this thing came really Really REALLY close to being a “(Value) Village Art Gallery Favorite”!!! For a semi phoned-in and formulaic painting, there is something about this that I find to be extremely appealing. It’s puzzling: the raven is demonstrably not so great (that beak! those legs! that branch! that TAIL! dang!) but…somehow, this works!

I’m genuinely sorry I didn’t buy this :/ 

Good work, CS!

Jellyfish (Acrylic on Canvas)

Really not that great. But the “bell” of this jellyfish is strangely appealing. I’m a fan of the color orange though. So maybe that’s it.

Seasonal Trees (Acrylic on Canvas)

Gimmicky. But definitely not the worst we’ve seen. I won’t even hold the Blue and Purple against it.

It’s a solid 3.2 on my One to Ten scale. 

Moose and Treeline (Acrylic on Canvas)

Two violations: 1) black paint and 2) Something In Silhouette.

And it doesn’t help matters that this poor moose looks a bit Bullwinkle-ish.

Sigh. The signature got to me.

Keep trying CS. Don’t take my review to heart.

(Haha “to heart”: get it?)

Mountain Lake (Acrylic on Canvas)

Somewhere in our gallery I am almost certain that there are at least two other versions of this exact same scene. 

You know what that means? Of course you do! It means that here we have yet another…PAINT NIGHT SUGGESTED SUBJECT!

Whoever invented the concept of “Paint Night” should die a slow and painful death ☠️ ⚰️🪦☠️

Sailing Ship? Fruit Basket? (Colored Paper Pieces and Paint on Parchment)

I can’t tell what the heck this is but it’s kinda cool. Old too, I think. Maybe (?) 1950s/1960s? But what the hell do I know? It almost seems like it could be commercial / mass market art. But the materials are so cruddy-looking I assumed it was Amateur Art.

If someone can demonstrate that it’s not the work of an amateur, I’ll remove this. Otherwise, it stays. 

Impressionist Something Or Other? (Acrylic on Canvas)

Despite the improvised snarky title, I actually like this. I’m not sure what it is, but I like it.

Seriously.

Reindeer and Moonlight (Acrylic on Canvas)

Here we have two violations of my “Six Signs of Amateur Art”: need I list them again?

Okay: blue paint, purple paint, black paint, grey paint, unpainted (white) canvas and things in silhouette.

Thoroughly average, not interesting, yawn-inducing.

Marbleized Canvas (Latex? Paint on Canvas)

I often say this in regard to these things: I’m not a fan, but it would appear to be a decent example of this technique.

I wonder how hard it is to do a bad one? Is it possible?

Fireweed (Acrylic on Canvas)

Going for a Van Gogh style here. At first, I didn’t think much of this. But on further consideration it’s kind of…okay. A little more effort on the leaves and stems would’ve helped a lot. Still. It’s probably better than I could do 🤷‍♂️

Cartoon Characters (Acrylic on Canvas)

Since these all showed up on the same day I think we can safely assume they are all by the same person. Probably a kid (I would hope so, at least) so I won’t be too unkind. They look like what they’re supposed to look like but other than that? Not great…

Marbleized Canvases (Latex Paint? on Canvas)

Well we’ve had a couple more of these things show up here I guess. These were small, on a kind of plastic-coated (from the feel?) canvas. Not great, not awful. Just kind of…eh. 

By the way: by my math, that thing on the right is our 1000th painting 🥳🎉🎊🍾🎊🎉🥳

I’d said a few days ago that I was going to call it quits when we made it to Painting 1000. But I’m not. I’m just going to slow down a bit. Maybe only hit Value Village once every week or two.

The (Value) Village Art Gallery appreciates you.

Christmas Tree in the Middle of Nowhere II (Acrylic on Canvas)

Gotta love these Paint Night suggested topics. That’s almost certainly what this (and the previous painting) is/are. 

Imagine: at some random local restaurant one night fairly recently (and we know it must have been “fairly recently” because no one in their right mind would have kept this horrid painting for very long) in between the Pizza Shooters, Shrimp Poppers and Extreme Fajitas, a bunch of wine-drunk Soccer Moms painted a stupid, boring, pointless Christmas scene very much like this one.

The most horrifying part? There are probably 15 or 20 more of these paintings out there somewhere, all showing varying degrees of incompetence, and all of them in the process of slowly, ploddingly, inexorably staggering/shambling towards Value Village, like zombies.

Brrr….

Christmas Tree in the Middle of Nowhere (Acrylic on Canvas)

We have yet another not-very-good one on our hands here, and it is almost certainly the result of a recent Paint Night.

Honestly this is just more a picture or a drawing than it is a painting. It’s like if a little kid drew a picture. And I don’t mean that as an insult to the artist (although the artist certainly should be insulted!) : I’m not saying that the artist has the talent of a little kid. I’m saying that, as a relatively-incompetent painter myself, I too have often caught myself painting something without any depth or dimensions or shading or anything that makes a painted image feel organically/emotionally/spiritually alive on the canvas. Like a kid drawing something on construction paper.

That’s what this is like. And the next one too.

Flowers? Maybe? (Acrylic on Canvas)

There’s another painting rather like this one that we installed a couple of months ago. I wonder if it’s by the same guy:

https://valuevillageartgallery.blogspot.com/2026/05/flowers-acrylic-on-canvas_02086044744.html?m=1

White paint on a white canvas always feels a little weird to me. These flowers (if they actually are flowers) aren’t bad but they’re a little too imprecise for my taste. This doesn’t feel Impressionist to me: it feels more…gimmicky. Anyway. It’s not bad but it’s not what I’d call good either.

It just is…

Believe (Acrylic on Canvas)

Awful. Just awful.

Hearts (Acrylic on Canvas)

Yeah, it’s kind of dumb. But a kid or teenager probably did it and maybe this was all he or she could come up with. We won’t be too unkind. 

If all the white areas of canvas here had been filled with paint that contrasted well with all the red, blue, pink and plum, this would look a lot better.

(“Teenager’s Room” better, that is. Not “Normal Human Being’s Wall” better.)

Dogs and Saying (Acrylic on Wood Plank)

These are actually sort of cute dogs. Especially the white one: he or she has a derpy little look on his or her face. I don’t absolutely hate this. For what it is (semi-kitschy, semi-cloying, “Kountry Kitchen”-type art), I mean. Not all art has to be Important. It just shouldn’t be stupid or ugly. This is neither of those things.

Dogs make this world a better place. They deserve our support.

Eyes and Clouds? (Acrylic on Canvas)

I know I sometimes wind up saying this a lot but yet again: I have no freaking clue what this is supposed to be about. In this case we have eyes, some things that either look like clouds or maybe (?) pieces of brain matter flying through the air? Combined with the speckles/spatters of Red Mist (also blue mist?) maybe this is a crime scene of some kind?

I dunno man…