@femmefan1946 wrote:
Also Woolworth's and KMart here in Canada.
They were and probably still are, churned out by factory workers. There are no 'artists' involved. Nothing original about them.
It is possible there may be a 'hipster' fad for collecting them at some point, after all Paint By Number sets and paintings had a revival a few years ago.
If you like it, hang it and enjoy it.
Yep, the one I'm viewing on the other side of the monitor came from Woolworths almost 40 years ago. My first piece of art for my apartment (then I started attending cons, and the art shows were far too tempting).
The Woolworths that I'd visited had gotten in about 30 or so framed pieces. All priced for about $3 (about 45 minutes of work for me at the time). Made in Mexico on the back.
The one I bought had another 8 or so pieces that were similar. Same selection of elements: vegetation and boulder in foreground, trees on either side framing a lake, trees on far side of lake at the foot of a mountain, clouds.
All the paintings had variations: the mountain might have one or two peaks; the boulder might be on the left, right or centre; the trees might have summer or autumn colours; etc.
Out of the 8 or 9 pieces with those elements only 2 passed the minimum grade, all the rest had elements that failed to come together for a good looking painting. And as long as I admire the painting from more than 5 feet away, it works as a painting. Closer than that and the solid boulder becomes the suggestion of boulder, and autumn trees start breaking up into pieces of paint.
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Getting back to the OP: It's possible the painting came from Europe, because this type of art is produced all over the world where wages are cheap or unemployment is high. Quick "popular style" art for some money in the pocket. The artist name could have been that of one person, or a house name for a group of painters.
As femmefan says: "If you like it, hang it and enjoy it." -- and I know still do for the piece I have.
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