Dilapidated Cabin (Oil on Canvas)

(Value Village Art Gallery Favorite)

While it’s not my cup of tea subject-wise, this is clearly a very well done painting. I googled the artist’s name and there are lots of her paintings that I really DO like. The artist lived to be 93 years old and spent most of her life in Yucaipa California. How did this thing wind up at a Value Village in Alaska? Wow…

Gonna Ask My Wife What Kind of Flower This Is (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

(Value Village Art Gallery Favorite)

Jen said “It’s a Magnolia, dear.” And did so in a very condescending tone.

This is wonderful! I love it! Aside from the obvious talent, this is what being an artist all about in my book: Dulcie took a large canvas board and cut it into multiple smaller boards, for economy’s sake maybe? That’s some real “Tie down your easel!!!” stuff right there. Thanks Dulcie. You’ve made my day! I hope you’re still alive :)

Postscript: she’s not :/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90722700/dulcie-a-collins

Black Sunlit Sky and Jar (Acrylic on Canvas)

Sunlit skies aren’t usually BLACK, are they? Is this a Total Eclipse of the Heart? I just don’t understand. 

The only thing I sorta like about this is the plant/bouquet/whatever. Specifically, I like the orange-y leaves.

Familiar Mountain Landscape? (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

See February 7th, October 27th. Not 100% sure I’m correct though. If so, this is the best of the three: the artist’s “take” on the subject is original and refreshing. If not, I gotta say: I like this a lot. Nice trees! Nice clouds! Not bad mountains! The contrast/juxtaposition of bright/light sky and lake versus dim/dark tree area is nice. And there’s none of that oh-so-wrong el barfo “blue-to-purple” that keeps showing up around here.

The foreground is somewhat eh, but still.

I like it!

Profile (Chalk on Black Paper)

Matted. And framed. This kind of thing simply amazes me. Here we have a sketch that is demonstrably, objectively, Not Very Good At All. But someone cared enough about it to have it matted and framed. This is what I love about art. It is in the Eye of the Beholder. Unknown Artist: I salute you!

Native American (Charcoal Pencil on Parchment)

It’s just not that great is it? But someone cared enough about it to put a little paper frame around it and place it into a Mylar sheet for safekeeping. This was important to someone. So here, on this day, we honor it. Huzzah!

Literally No Idea (Acrylic on Canvas)

 

Your guess is as good as mine. I was thinking broccoli, or taffy, or umm what’s that plant I can never remember the name of? They make pies out of it. Rutabaga? RHUBARB!!! Is this rhubarb?!? Whoa… 

Jamaican Tree? (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

No idea what this is about. Is the white some kind of gimmick? Is Symbolism happening? Or was the artist simply in the process of starting over? We may never know.

Desert Landscape (Acrylic on Canvas)

Weird but kinda charming. Strange mountains. Ho hum sky. But I like the ground colors and the cacti. My brain keeps telling me the cacti are spelling something but I guess my brain is wrong.

Forest Closeup (acrylic on canvas)

This one ehhh I’m not so fond of. No signature. I’m seeing way too many birch trees lately. It needs to stop. The subject is starting to feel kinda kitsch, like…I dunno…people doing paintings of cowboy hats and horseshoes in Texas maybe? This ongoing birch tree jazz is becoming gimmicky and trite. Sorry.

Wooded Area (acrylic on canvas)

I actually like this one. It’s not dreary. You can tell what it is. The background trees are a little weird, but that’s okay! The green and yellow is something we just don’t see enough of, and the transition from orange to blue is refreshingly different from the ad nauseum “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing” blue to purple we are so often bombarded with up in here. Nice work RM! (who is not to be confused with RB!)

Portrait (acrylic on canvas)

I like it: the neck, the shoulder, and the delicate shading on both are really nice. It has baggage: someone cared enough about this painting (of what one would assume is a real person) to put a frame around it, only for it to wind up at Value Village. I wonder: what’s the backstory here? Who’s the doll? What was her relationship with the artist? What’s the bird’s-eye lowdown on this caper?

Confetti Heart (acrylic on canvas)

Yet another one that I initially thought might be commercial / mass produced. But it’s way too legitimately random and haphazard to be anything other than amateur artistry I think. Don’t get me wrong: I do like this. Well, I like it more than a lot of the stuff here. Because of the Day-Glo feel of course (see 5/14/23). I’d like it better w/o the heart though.

Night Landscape (Acrylic? on Canvas)

 

“Have you ever seen blood in the moonlight, Will? It appears quite black.”

This is by far one of the strangest and most interesting paintings we’ve ever exhibited. It is also the first painting I’ve included two photos of. The truth is that these photos just don’t do this painting justice: to my eye, at first this painting looked almost completely black. But when I had a look at the first photo I took, it didn’t even seem like the same painting: in the photo, the areas where the glossy paint is exceptionally thick reflect the light in a way that makes the painting seem brighter than it actually is. But even the sky, which is not exactly thick with paint, seemed darker in person. What’s going on here? The second photo is closer to what this thing looks like in real life, but even that doesn’t convey how weirdly dark it is. So. Long story short: this painting is, in its own way, very good, very strange, and I now absolutely regret not having bought it. For $4.99!!! No idea where I would have put it, but I regret not buying it.

Mountain Stream? (Acrylic on Canvas)

Something about this feels very real to me. Too bad the execution is so ugh. The mountainous cliffy bits are nondescript and blobby. The trees are nice: some years my family had Christmas trees that looked very much like these. Of course, Christmas trees back then were more diverse and in some respects weirder looking than they are nowadays. Anyway. The depth/distance bit is nicely done as well. The froth and white water isn’t so great, but you can tell what’s going on with it at least. We’ve got the same kind of rather awful sky that I’ve seen so many times before. What is it with these ongoing bad skies?!? One wouldn’t think painting a sky would be so difficult, right? WRONG! My skies suck too! But they’re generally better than this one. Anyway, there are a few things to like here. Keep at it, MD!

Postscript: I thought this felt “real” but I finally figured it out: it’s just “familiar”: check out October 27th…

Swamp Thing (Watercolor on Parchment)

We have yet another mystery on our hands I think. I honestly don’t know if I’m experiencing some kind of cognitive impairment or what, but I just can’t make sense of what I’m seeing. There appears to be a water-line (unless it’s some kind of shelf fungus) but I can’t make it match up with what I think (?) is the rest of the water. I see a fish, seemingly swimming, and fish are generally known to swim in water. But…what the hell is going on with the water in the center? I really don’t get this at all. And I’d like to, since the trees are pretty nice-looking Swamp Trees, and as I’ve mentioned before, my own attempts at trees have always been subpar. For my trees to even be considered medium talent trees, they would have to vastly improve. Anyway. This is like some kind of non-Euclidean geometries version of a swamp I guess. H.P. Lovecraft would approve.

Curly Tree (Acrylic on Canvas)

You may be asking yourself “What are we looking at?” Your guess is as good as mine.