Lake Scene (Acrylic on Canvas)

There was a time when this painting would have been granted immediate “Value Village Art Gallery Favorite” status. But that time is long past. While this painting is very good and is certainly in the top ten percent of the paintings here when it comes to talent and effort displayed, it isn’t a “favorite.” The style of it is that which I have come to think of as being…well…there’s no nice way to say this…SLIMY. It just feels slimy, gelatinous, and oily. Viscous. Unpleasantly so. The colors are too rich somehow. I can’t explain it. Anyway, this is a really nicely-done painting that I would not want hanging on any wall in my home. Sorry.

Dog (Acrylic on Canvas)

This is one of those canvas painting boards with a picture already drawn on it. Kind of like a “paint by numbers” kit but for little kids. If we couldn’t see the lines, this one would be marginally interesting in a Primitive / Outsider Art kind of way. But…

Patriotic Easter Eggs? (Acrylic on Canvas)

No so great. But honestly we’ve seen much much worse. It’s a 3 on my “1 to 10” scale. I am absolutely not kidding…

Confetti? (Acrylic on Canvas)

Low Effort. Medium Talent. Phoned In. On Autopilot. 

That having been said, I genuinely like this painting far more than the usual jive we see here: trolls, pumpkins, moonlit nights, owls, mushrooms, poorly-done mountain scenes, northern lights, etc.

It’s a solid 3!

Various Colors (Acrylic on Canvas)

Believe it or not, on my “1 to 10” scale, I’d call this a solid 2. 

If not for the brown, it’d be a 3…

Fictional Continents (Acrylic on Canvas)

Maybe this was for a class assignment or class project of some kind? Regardless, it’s not very good.

How does one manage to make imaginary land masses look so bad? 🤷‍♂️

Jellyfish (Acrylic on Canvas)

One of the weirdest-looking jellyfishes I have ever seen portrayed via paint upon canvas. Its head (?) looks more like a mushroom cap or a lima bean and its umm tail (?) looks like knotted ribbon. Or a crayon-colored spinal column.

Very damned odd… 

Tree Line (Acrylic on Canvas)

Previously we were talking about the concept of “bad” and how to recognize it in a painting.

Can you see it?

Fox Wearing Gru Scarf (Acrylic on Canvas)

This seems to be a day for weird-looking animals on canvases. Dang. This one is very distinctive and peculiar. I wouldn’t call it bad. It’s just…different.

When I see “bad” there’s no question. This isn’t bad. It’s just unusual. Too much white (unpainted) canvas left remaining though.

Strange Cat, Pumpkin (Acrylic on Canvas)

This was almost certainly perpetrated by the same culprit as was responsible for the odd-looking owl below. In hindsight, I realize that I should have grouped them together as one installation 🤨

This cat is so weird-looking that I think I kind of sort of maybe (?) am starting to like it. Just a little bit.

Taken together, these two paintings seem to be growing on me. Not sure why. Maybe I’m coming down with something 🤒

Owl in a Cornucopia Hat (Acrylic on Canvas)

Now that…is a very strange-looking owl.

Orange, green, black. Just a horrid combination of colors. Ghastly.

And is that…snow? What the heck?!?

Skulls and Bat (Acrylic on Canvas)

Why me?

If that’s supposed to be a tree, it looks more like coral. Feh!

But y’know, actually…those skulls are kinda cool-looking… 🧐

Riverbank Scene (Watercolor on Parchment)

This one is pretty nice I think.

It’s been my experience as the curator of the (Value) Village Art Gallery that, generally speaking, artists using watercolor as their medium more often than not usually seem to know what the hell they’re doing. I mean, going by memory, I don’t think we’ve ever had a demonstrably awful painting here that was done in watercolor.

I hope I didn’t just jinx us 😬

Anyway, this is a nice little watercolor painting. It’s a shame that the artist didn’t sign it.

Bluebird (Acrylic on Canvas)

This is...either pretty good or kinda good. It probably looks like what the artist wanted it to look like. It's not my cup of tea though. This feels very Easter-y, Spring-y. And I'm a Summer or Autumn. Still. A lot of time and effort probably went into this, so I won't make too much fun. It's okay!

Snowman (Acrylic on Canvas)

Nope. Just...nope.

Nope!
 

No Description (Acrylic on Canvas)

This is understated to the point of being invisible, nonexistent. It's a cypher, an enigma. There's a pattern, but it's...really kinda not very there.

I honestly can't tell if this is sorta good, or sort of a copout. You tell me..

Flowers (Acrylic on Canvas)

This looks mass-produced but it is legit, real human and probably amateur artist-created art.

It feels kinda, slightly, somewhat 1970s-ish. I like it, but I don't "like it" like it.

It's okay. Better than many of the canvases up in here, for sure.

Landscape (Oil on Canvas)

 (Value Village Art Gallery Favorite)

Really nice. Super glad to have this in our gallery. A bit Van Gogh-y. And I mean that as a positive. We could use a lot more landscapes with this degree of heart and talent. Way to go, artiste!

Koy? (Acrylic on Canvas)

It's very rough (to the point of implied incompetence) but there's something about this that is just a little bit likable.

Mushroom and Frog (Acrylic on Canvas)

I really wanted to like this. Because I’m a fan of mushrooms, specifically Amanita Muscaria mushrooms. Not a big fan of frogs per se, but mushrooms are kinda great.

Anyway, as I started to say: I wanted to like this. But I don’t. Don’t get me wrong: it’s almost okay, for what it is. And it is, without a doubt, better than 30% of the paintings exhibited in this gallery. Maybe even better than 31% But…I don’t really like it that much. It feels “low effort.” The stems are wonky. There’s almost no depth. The frog’s arms and hands seem like an afterthought. Probably this was done by an extreme novice, so I won’t gripe too much. And I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this was a Paint Night painting. If so, it’s one of the sliiiiightly better ones. 

Still, it’s just not very good. And it feels plebeian. Paintings of mushrooms and frogs are on the same level as…I dunno…gnomes. And pumpkins.