Oil on canvas painting of the streets in the oft-painted Montmartre section of Paris, 18" by 24" (25" by 31" framed), signed at lower right by the noted well listed French naive artist LOUIS PEYRAT (1905-1999). This is a classic scene that reminds of Maurice Utrillo, who, I read online, was a cousin of Peyrat (one painting in the auction record featured as its subject matter Utrillo's house). The muted color palette lends an austerity and understatement to this fine work...

Watercolor on paper, 20 1/2" by 27 1/4" inside the mat (26 1/2" by 32 1/2" as framed), signed at lower right "Roy E. Swanson", dated there "84" This watercolor is by a skilled hand (see other works by him in my shop), though I cannot seem to find a listing for the artist. There is a listing for a RAY Swanson (Cowboy Artists of America), but this is not that artist...

Circa 1940's or 1950's oil on canvas, 25" by 30", (33" by 38" as framed), the subject a vase with pink and white flowers, some blue cornflowers at lower left in front of an open oriental fan, the entire scene suffused with a pinkish, mid-century light. The painting is signed at lower right by the Who Was Who in American Art-listed JOSEPH LANE (1900-), an artist and muralist who trained at the Art Institute of Chicago...

Oil on masonite, 18" by 14" (22" by 18" in its wood frame), the subject the familiar streets of the French Quarter, this being a view of Pirate's Alley, from Jackson Square, facing Royal Street, signed at lower right "Weller". I take from the website of the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts: "Dell Weller studied four years at the Art Students League in New York. After two years of study in Mexico, he returned to New Orleans. He developed a widespread reputation for his wildlife etchings...

One of three works in my shop by the same artist, F. KENWOOD GILES (1899/1900-1972), is this watercolor on paper painting, 14" by 19 1/2" inside the mat, 20 1/2" by 26 1/2" as framed, the subject several pink-walled, white-roofed island homes on a bluff overlooking the sea, flowering shrubs and bushes completing the happy scene. The paintings are not dated, but I believe they would have been created in the 1950's. Giles was a versatile English artist who lived in Bermuda from 1950 onward...

Oil on canvas, 21" by 15 3/4" (24" by 19 1/2" as framed), unsigned, the subject an Austrian, Swiss, or German village in deep snow on a brilliant sunny day. The sharp peak in the background center could be the Matterhorn, in which case we could assume the subject is Zermatt, Switzerland. I'd guess the age of the work as circa 1950's. On the stretcher someone has written "AUSTRIA (TIROL) cca 1950"...

Oil on canvas board, 14 1/2" by 19 1/2", unframed, signed at lower left in Russian "O. Menailova ", and with a typed label on the reverse that reads "Menailova Bamskaya/study -- oil--/1996 year". There's also a violet colored rubber stamp on the back in Russian that is hard to decipher (probably an export stamp)...

Oil on cotton canvas, unframed, 12" by 15 7/8", the scene female figures in a marketplace with their baskets of foodstuffs, signed at lower right center "Getro". This work likely dates to the 1980's or later and is representative of the colorful folk art works produced for tourists by the many talented artists in the country. Condition is good and with a standard 12 by 16 frame added, this would be ready for the wall...

Nan Greacen was the daughter of the well-known American artist Edmund Greacen. She was born in Giverny, France, where her father was an active disciple of Claude Monet in the art colony there. Nan attended the Grand Central Art School co-founded by her father, and received instruction from the likes of Arshile Gorky, Wayman Adams and Jerry Farnsworth, as well as from her father...

Watercolor on paper drawing, 15 1/2" by 21 1/2" (18 3/4" by 24 3/4" framed), the subject an ancient stone monastery perched on a dramatic cliffside with high coastal mountains in the distance at right. The work is signed at lower right "Balke-Gry" /1919/Pantocrator". My research online has led me to conclude that this scene is of a monastery at Mount Athos, the holy peninsula in northern Greece which is the home of numerous famous monasteries, open just to males...

Very large (48" by 48", unframed), decorative, attention-getting oil on canvas of a family of three musician performers in a park setting, painted in a humorous fashion, the family in costume and appearing clown-like, by the French mid century impressionist artist ROGER ETIENNE (1922-2011). The painting is titled on the reverse "Jour de Fete" (Holiday), inscribed "Pour Renon", and signed by the artist and dated 1972...

This is a watercolor signed at lower right by an unrecognized artist named "Andre" or "Audre", 11 1/2" by 8 1/2" (17 1/2" by 14 1/4" as framed), the subject a young girl in pigtails viewed from behind, playing a grand piano. The overall colors are a cool mix of white, black, silvery gray, and light blue, with pink accenting in her bow. The mat and silvery frame pick up the colors nicely...

Oil on canvas painting of waves breaking on the beach at sunset, (titled on reverse "Fading Sun"), measuring 16" by 20" unframed, signed at lower right by artist CARYL WOOD, the wife of famed landscape painter Robert Wood. Caryl was an amateur painter when she met the already famous Robert Wood in 1953 after he sustained serious injuries when hit by a car on Pacific Coast Highway. The couple married and Robert instructed her in painting, taking her along on painting trips. In 1964 the Woods m...

Twentieth century oil on canvas painting of a young woman, 21 1/2" by 18" (29" by 25" framed), signed at lower right somewhat indecipherably "Cintellys".The difficult to decipher signature is of listed artist ANNE CINTELLYS. I do not see a biography on line, but several paintings, including one of a young woman at a race track, and another of an exotic dancer, have appeared at auction in Germany and France in the past 15 years. Clearly, the artist was likely familiar with the work of artist Je...

Oil on masonite panel painting of the desert, 12" by 9", signed in capital letters at lower left by listed southwestern artist BILL SHADDIX (1931-). The presence of the iconic saguaro cactus places the scene as east of the Colorado River, therefore in Arizona. Shaddix was born in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, and emigrated to California by the early 1940's with his family. A deputy sheriff in Orange County by 1956, he began to paint, and eventually turned full time to his fine art. He sett...

Large, wall-ready acrylic on canvas painting in the traditional style, 40" by 58 1/2", (101 cm. by 149 cm.), not framed, by the noted Australian aboriginal artist from the Utopia Station region, ADA BIRD PETYARRE (born circa 1930, passed away 2010). This appears to be one of her largest works. Petyarre, one of the so-called "Petyarre Sisters", all of whom are/were artistically active, began painting in the late 1970's. By the late 1980's and early 1990's she had already received critical rec...

Oil on rough weave canvas scene of figures in a hazy landscape, 15" by 30" (20" by 35" framed), signed at lower right by English-born artist who later came to be more closely associated with Ireland, ANTHONY "TONY" KLITZ (1917-2000). This work, dating to 1975 as we see from a reverse copyright stamp of the artist, is rather typical of the artist's style. He used generally a soft impressionist style with generally restrained colors, along with much neutral space, punctuated by small bursts of i...

Uncommonly exquisite, large original drawing in pastel, 25 1/2" by 19 1/2", 35 1/2" by 27 1/2" as professionally framed in bleached wood, signed at lower left and dated there '91 by the noted American artist LOU KOHL-MORGAN (1942-). Purchased recently in Portland, Maine, the work bears a gallery label from the Frick Gallery of Belfast, Maine. The title of the work is "Equinox". Frick Gallery on the central Maine coast was an active gallery in the late 1980's and early to mid 1990's. The arti...