Winter Landscape (Acrylic on Canvas)

Again, pardon the glare: this was framed and behind glass. A slightly-odd way to treat a painting but pfft what do I know?

This is well done but really kind of…blah. Isn’t it? Not trying to be mean. It’s just kind of…”eh.” I could easily see this hanging in my grandmother’s parlor. If I had a grandmother with a parlor. But I don’t. Nevertheless, someone held on to this for a long time so it must’ve really meant something to someone. For close to half a century. 

1979 was a very good year. I remember it well.

Nude Study (Acrylic on Canvas)

This came very very very close to making it into the illustrious (Value Village Art Gallery Favorite) club. Because it is classically artistic. No nonsense. No gimmicks. Just legitimate talent and effort expended to create something good. I really do like this a lot. But then there’s…that head. It looks a little bit like Peter Cushing to me. And it was really hard for me to get past that. I could live with the slightly-wonky feet and hands, but that head. Brrr.

Regardless, this is a good painting and we are glad to have it here. For realz.

 

Daisies? (Acrylic and Plaster on Wooden Box Frame?)

A little out-of-the-ordinary. And only marginally interesting. I almost didn’t include it. But it IS art after all, so 🤷‍♂️

On second thought: As paintings of flowers go, this is actually a pretty nice one. We have some legitimately flower-like perspective, depth, drooping and shape. I’m a fan of amateur flower paintings when they’re done well. This one was.

On a different subject: we are getting towards the end, folks. I am going to try (?)) to call it quits when we hit our one thousandth painting. Which should be sometime before the end of this month (July of 2026).

It has been a lot of fun 🙂 But honestly it’s not as much fun as it used to be. Few things are, unfortunately. Oh well.

Girl (Acrylic on Canvas)

Really nice. And somewhat unusual I think. I’d love to know the backstory on this one: who painted it, who was painted, and why it wound up discarded/donated at Value Village.

Home (Crayon and Pencil on Paper)

I like this very much. Not just because it’s feels like it’s from another time, and is cute and may (!) have been done by a little kid. It’s just…decent. A decent example of representational art. It’s not annoying or stupid or pointless. Someone made this and it was worth making.

Good job!!!

Tiger (Acrylic on Canvas)

This is demonstrably and objectively not a very good tiger. But we can tell that it IS a tiger at least. So there’s that…

Flowers (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

Very very average. And about par for what we see around here. This isn’t awful per se but it’s sure not very interesting or original. It’s colorful at least, which is something I’m usually a fan of. Believe it or not, I’ve seen flower paintings done entirely in varying shades of black and gray.

Landscape (Acrylic on Canvas)

Black, white and gray. Dreary as hell. We see this kind of thing more often than I would like. If Art imitates Life then someone needs to cheer the hell up. And just use charcoal next time maybe…

Fishing Village As Seen From the Ocean (Watercolor on Parchment)

Not much to it. But it’s pretty good I think.

Christmas Window and Animals (Acrylic on Canvas)

Kitschy. Probably a Paint Night subject.

It’s okay. Not everyone is a Rembrandt.

Flowers (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

Those black center flower structures are kind of weird (I googled them but can’t figure out what this part of a flower is called) but otherwise I actually kind of like this. It was big, like 20”x24” or so. Good work.

Fireweed? (Acrylic on Canvas)

Very colorful. And very very average. It’s no masterpiece but it looks like what it is, more or less, so that’s something.

Not much to make fun of here, unless I wanted to be a complete jerk in a low-hanging fruit kind of way. Which isn’t totally out of the question hereabouts, usually. I’ll hold off though.

Wolf and Snow (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

Pardon the glare.

I’m not into this kind of thing but it looks like a real wolf, which around here is somewhat of a miracle.

This is a lot better than I could do, for sure. And someone held onto this for a long time so it must have been very much appreciated.

Great work, Tony!

Sunlit Sky and Mountains (Acrylic on Canvas)

You know in some Peanuts strips when something bad happens to Charlie Brown and he hangs his head down in the very last panel and says “I can’t stand it”?

Yeah.

No Idea Whatsover (Acrylic on Canvas)

Is this even finished? Is it supposed to look like this?

With Modern Art, it is often difficult to tell 🧐

Cityscape (Oil on Canvas)

 (Value Village Art Gallery Favorite)

This is an oldie I think, judging by the condition of the canvas, the back, and the frame itself. Guessing 1970s or older? Maybe? I could be wrong though. It’s not like a Carbon-14 dated it or anything.

Regardless, this is really really great work. It feels…unconventional and vaguely 1920s Mexican to me. Cluttered. Like a Diego Rivera. But what the hell do I know? I just work here.

We are proud to have you here with us Bobby.

Love (Acrylic on Wood Plank)

River: you did so great! This looks wonderful 🙂

(I don’t give kids the usual treatment.) 

Black Plant (Acrylic on Canvas)

Weird black plant or tree with weird black leaves. No idea what that is all about or why it even exists. Which is probably why it wound up at Value Village: someone else felt the same way I bet…

Flowers in a Turtle Neck Sweater (Acrylic on Canvas)

We seem to have a lot of really not very good flower paintings lately. It’s puzzling. I kind of like flower paintings myself. But this shit seriously tests my patience.

Do better, flower painters!

Birds and Branch (Acrylic on Canvas)

I see so many paintings like this. I mean sooooo many. They all generally look like what the artist wanted them to look like, I guess, so you could call them good paintings in that respect. But…you look at them and all the other paintings so very like them and you wonder…why. Like why?

Just…why?