Owl (Some Kind of Kid-type Paint on Paper)

Last art of the Year.

Owls! I like them. I used to draw owls when I was a little kid. I liked “X the Owl” from Mister Roger’s Neighborhood so I would draw him a lot. Anyways, this is a very stately and dapper owl and I support it and the artist 100%! Keep up the good work, little dude or dudette!

https://youtu.be/71PNZH1OaW0

 

Trees and Lake (Acrylic on Canvas)

 

This is pretty doggone good, for what it is. The composition is more original than we usually see around here. Very nice. And being able to paint something that looks like the something it’s supposed to look like is definitely something we are in favor of around here.

Well done, D. Crimmins.

Windy Dress Girl in Moonlight (Acrylic on Canvas)

 

I saw this painting in two different places at VV today. I actually thought I was having a stroke at first. Then I realized that, once again, we have a “Paint Night Suggested Subject” on our hands:

https://valuevillageartgallery.blogspot.com/2025/12/windy-dress-girl-in-moonlight-acrylic.html?m=1

I am Pooped and Demoralized.

Black Black Black (Acrylic on Canvas)

The sheer volume of black paintings we get here is starting to feel, to me, like either a cognitive defect or (more likely) culture-influenced mental illness. 

Black is not art. 

Otherwise you could paint a canvas entirely black and call it “Midnight in the Coal Mine” or “What the Blind Man Saw During the Total Eclipse” and get away with it.

Black canvas is demonstrably ugly, pointless and stupid. Just as unused white canvas is. Both indicate laziness, sloppiness; a lack of creativity, imagination and talent.

SERIOUSLY! WHAT IS THIS PAINTING ALL ABOUT?!? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!?

Ducks on the Wing (Acrylic on Canvas)

 

At first glance, this would appear to be store-bought Factory-type art ala what would typically be mass-produced somewhere in China, for living rooms somewhere in America, during the 1950s/60s/70s. 

But I think that “first glance” would be incorrect.

Judging by the nature of the framing job, the condition of the stretched canvas back, the artist’s signature and the overall quality of the work (which is “pretty good but faaaaar from professional level”: check out the skyscraper-sized trees in the background) I’m confident that this is Amateur Art.

Despite the ginormous trees: Nice work, Barbara :)

Star-Moose (Acrylic on Canvas)

It’s just…um…

I don’t know, man.

Flowers (Acrylic on Canvas)

Pretty sure I’ve installed this person’s work here before. It’s…okay…but it manages to feel almost “copyright-free art”-like, with those wide black lines on those cartoony/animation-y flowers.

Art can be reasonably decent and pretty while also being something that almost no one would want to hang on a wall in their home. That’s what this is.

(Later) Here’s what this reminded me of. Probably not the same person: 

https://valuevillageartgallery.blogspot.com/2025/06/purple-flowers-acrylic-on-canvas.html?m=1

Alaska Kitsch (Acrylic on Canvas)

Xtratuf boots with flowers planted in them (fireweed and either daisies or sunflowers maybe?) Gimmicky and goofy. Sorry. I totally get why this would wind up at VV. Trite, pre-fab and virtually voiceless.

Artist: paint something worth painting and get back to me.

Uhhhh… (Acrylic on Canvas)

Is this a Ponkemon? A sad Cactus of some kind? I just don’t know. I’m open for suggestions though. Whatever it is, it’s not that good.

Mountains and Affirmation (Acrylic on Canvas)

As a Christian I can’t disagree with the sentiments expressed here. But as the Owner and Curator of what might be the Largest Northernmost Online Art Gallery in the World, I can definitely critique the ever-lovin’ hell out of this trend/blend of bland safe Art combined with Uplifting Quotations and/or homiletic platitudes. This “Hang In There Baby /  Cat Grabbing a Curtain Rod” stuff is simply something I am not in favor of.

Mountain Lake, Mountain Lake, Mountain River and Mountain Lake (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

The top one is the best of the bunch: I’m fairly certain these were all done by the same person. 

Here we have the same problem I so frequently encounter: these paintings manage to be not bad while also being just not that great. There is gumption here, and drive, and focus, but nothing important is being said with the paint. Or, if not nothing important, than nothing really worth…the time spent. 

But by expending this same amount of paint and intent/effort creating something real, non-ersatz/cloying/trite, a good painting could come of it. Even a bad portrait of a real person, or a self-portrait, would matter more than this. A building. A room. Something, anything real. Not this…pre-fab, easy, boring, and totally expected flapdoodle.

Mountain Lake (Acrylic on Canvas)

It’s pretty generic but it certainly isn’t the worst we’ve seen. The green bits are kind of interesting. The dark trees are formulaic. The sky and mountains are unremarkable but not terrible. The moon is all wrong. It bears repeating: I wish I could have seen what this canvas would have looked like had the artist painted from the Gut. 

Bear, Lake, Mountain (Acrylic on Canvas)

It’s definitely not great, per the subject (trite hackneyed overdone Alaska themes, yawn) but as these things go, it’s not terrible. I wouldn’t want it on a wall in my home, but someone probably would. 

Except that it did wind up at VV. So maybe not. 

Addendum: On second glance I’ve decided I like the mountains and sky a lot. They’re distinctive. The mountains have character and they really pop against the backdrop of that sky. A painting done with that degree of style, competence and confidence, applied to other subjects, could be pretty great.

(The trees, grass, fireweed, water and bear reallllly suck though.)

Just saying…

Collage (Multimedia on Wood Frame)

I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of collage. But yet again we have a fairly decent example of that type of art. It’s better than I could do, it’s not too cluttery, and it’s reasonably unboring. So…good job?

Crashing Waves (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

Not great, but the artist was giving it his/her all. So I like it!

Trying hard, doing one’s best, painting from the heart/soul/gut, and trying to paint demonstrably, legitimately real paint-worthy subjects (as opposed to baby yodas, ponkemons, Batman symbols, etc.) gets most would-be artists a reasonably decent review around here.

Bear (Acrylic on Wooden Board)

Pretty great, honestly! Except that when I picked it up in order to photograph it, wooden flower petals started falling off all over the place. Sigh.

(Postscript: I think the yellow flower petals are McDonald’s french fries.)

Rejoice (Watercolor on Paper)

 An Alaskan Original. One-of-a-kind.

(Thank God)

This purple humanoid figure is going to give me nightmares. What. The. Fuck.

Lake (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

Aaaaaand close on the heels of me taking a swing at all the Mountain Lake paintings we’ve got up in here, I actually get a lake painting that shows some real Talent, Effort and Focus. Nice job, Geneva. The (V)VAG hopes you’re still alive and painting. But since this is from 1976 there’s a fairly good chance you’re not. 

Wherever you are, ma’am, you did good with this painting. Thanks :)

Flower (Watercolor on Parchment)

It’s not bad, actually. And this might be gouache, not watercolor. I’m not exactly sure. Anyway. This is Not Awful. A nice change of pace, really: a break from all the birch trees, northern lights and mountain lakes.

No Earthly Idea (Acrylic on Canvas)

I literally have no idea what I’m looking at here. Just some grey paint. Was this a spill of some kind?

Invest in some Bounty, pal…

Birch Trees (Acrylic on Canvas)

Birch trees! Birch trees as far as the eye can see! Birch trees everywhere! More Birch trees than you can shake a birch stick at.

Our gallery has an overabundance of birch trees, if you weren’t aware. These? They’re barely okay. I guess. Pretty uninspired if we’re being honest.

Birch trees!

Windy Dress Girl in Moonlight (Acrylic on Canvas)

I feel like I’m being trolled. Here we have yet another painting with way too much black, blue and purple. I blame Smart Phones and their pesky apps and the companies that market them. Have you SEEN how many phone app icons are blue?!? It’s insane. I wind up searching and searching for an app that is right in front of me, because almost all of the icons on my phone’s screen look the same: 75% of them are BLUE! 

In advertising and logo-designing, blue is everywhere because it tests as a soothing, relaxing color for most people. It’s true. Google it!

Blue, and black, and purple have the opposite effect on me. Especially when on a canvas. What is the opposite of soothing? Enraging. And relaxing? Agitating.

Anyway, this is fairly typical “young girl” art. I’m willing to bet money that the artist is somewhere between 13 and 18 years old. I could be wrong though. I’m not right 100% of the time. It’s probably closer to ehhh somewhere around 94.5% of the time.

So anyway. Sue. Listen to me. Stop painting this Bratz doll / Billie Eyelash / TicTak garbage art. I’m almost certain you have something within you that is actually worth saying with paint and canvas. 

You can do it!

Birds in Tree (Acrylic on Canvas)

Sigh. Okay. So…it’s not awful. But it is bad. In the sense that this, and so many paintings like it, are seemingly representative of what I’ve decided to start calling The Wayfair.com School of Art. Which is to say art that is just…THERE…man. Its purpose is to take up space and to not say much of anything useful and to be totally benign, much like an unsuccessful tumor. Art that is only marginally better than…empty space on a wall. And sometimes, sometimes it’s not even that. In lots of cases, I’d rather have the empty wall.

Damnit. Okay, the branches aren’t bad. The silhouettes look like birds. But…there’s too much black and too much blue (see my previous statements regarding black, blue and purple.) And not enough of anything worth saying or doing.

Try harder next time Cat. Don’t let me down.

Sky, Fence, Stars (Acrylic on Canvas)

It’s just not that great. And what are those yellow balls in the air? Sorry. 

Michelle, I feel like you can do better. I have faith in you. Next time maybe…

Aurora Mermaids (Acrylic on Canvas)

Again with the black. Too much damned BLACK. Why does this black keep happening? Amateur artists everywhere: please listen to me. Stop using so much black, and blue, and purple. But mainly: stop it with the black. You’re killing me with the all the black.  

Bears (Colored Paper Cutouts on Paper)

It’s decent, nice. I wasn’t sure I would include it but I decided I would. We have a handful of “not painting”-type art here, the occasional wood carving or mosaic, etc etc. So there’s a precedent. Still. As okay as this is, as I look at it I begin to feel that it is out of place here.

I may have it expelled at a later date.

Mirror and Sink (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

(Value Village Art Gallery Favorite)

Why is it that the most amateurish of art is signed whereas the really good stuff, like this, so often isn’t?

I’m generalizing of course. 

But this painting, right here? It MOVES me. It is alive. It is organic. Organtic. Real. From the Gut. There is movement though nothing is in motion. There is emotion. This painting is a moment in time that we can all feel. Here before you right now is ART. The real deal, despite how understated it is without being affectedly, poseurishly, faux understated. 

All this going for it and…there is no…freaking…signature.

I want to know who painted this. And where their head was at, at the time. And if they are going to keep at it, painting-wise. 

Artist: paint more. The world needs you.