Small (7 3/4" by 5 1/2" framed) pastel drawing titled on reverse "Sage on the Black Rock", signed at lower left and bearing the business card of contemporary Nevada artist Ruth Wood Cantrell, a member of the Reno Artist Co-operative. The Black Rock of course is best known as the site of the Burning Man festival, held every year in northwestern Nevada in one of the most remote locations in the lower 48 states...

An original poster dating to 1977, 32" by 18 1/2" in present gray metal framing, advertising an exhibition in Phoenix at the Galleria of the downtown Arizona Bank building, of works by two sentinel photographers of the 20th century in the Southwest: Ansel Adams (1902-1984), and Frederick Sommer (1905-1999). Sommer, born in Italy, lived in Prescott, Arizona for much of his life...

The work is in gouache on paper on board, 10 1/2" by 13", signed at lower left, the subject a split rail fence in a brushy late autumn subdued landscape, This has a frame, of sorts, but it is old and cheap and falling apart. The art has some condition problems, most notably at lower right, where I think moisture exposure has sort of erased the image in that corner. Properly framed, this little work by a listed woman artist who painted a number of western Virginia landscapes will live on...

A PAIR of American oil on board mountain landscapes, each 23 1/2" by 11 3/4" (29 1/2" by 17 1/2" framed), both signed at lower corner A. A. Baker. There does not seem to be biographical information on the Hudson River-inspired artist, who likely painted these in the mid 1880's. It is doubtful that they have ever been cleaned. There is a smell of smoke. One has a 1" puncture of the board (in the tree at right), the pressure having come from the reverse side; the piece remains attached...

An elegantly understated print featuring somewhat Hopperesque houses framed by trees, the imagery generally appearing as monochromatic and grayish, with some light green and pinkish color, signed in pencil at lower right corner and numbered 76/90 at lower left, by the noted American contemporary artist ROBERT KIPNISS (1931-). Kipniss is known for his graphic art and for his paintings, which have gone into five figures at auction...

An accomplished, very western American pastel drawing on paper of a frontiersman, (11" by 9", and 15 1/4" by 13 3/4" as simply framed), signed at lower right "Lea" and with copyright symbol. I sent images to the Tom Lea (1907-2001) Institute in El Paso, Texas, thinking this may be by that well-known artist but they responded that it is not. Therefore, it is offered as simply a nice drawing with a lot of western appeal. Likely date of execution circa 1970's or 1980's.

Fine early pencil drawing on wove paper, the subject a distant view of Windsor Castle and the Thames River (favorite subject of so many, many artists), signed at lower right "James M. Hart" and dated there 1855. This is a rather early work of JAMES MACDOUGAL HART (1828-1901) of later Hudson River School fame. Hart's major large scale landscape paintings have reached into six figures at auction, and sales in the tens of thousands are not unusual...

Color lithograph on wove paper print, pencil signed at lower right margin by famous French cubist painter and printmaker JACQUES VILLON (1875-1963), the title "Carte de Veccio", circa 1960. Villon, one of three brothers, (one of them the famous Marcel Duchamp), worked early on in the style of Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Villon also studied printmaking techniques with Marcel Robbe. Later on he worked in various modernist styles including Fauvism, Cubism, and abstract impressionism...

Oil on canvas painting of fruits, bottles and other objects, painted in a highly impressionist style, 12" by 16", unframed. The painting bears a signature "G d E" at lower right, added later (very obviously "floats"---dark under UV light) for French artist Georges d'Espagnat (1870-1950). So we have here a likely American painting, I think circa 1950's or so, that is very nicely done and quite decorative. There's very small paint loss at lower edge from past frame abrasion...

Purchased some years ago in Florida, this is an unusual work, possibly some kind of enamel work (I am guessing----shiny hard surface with relief, mimicking enamel surfaces I have seen), 5" by 13", 21" by 25" in gold frame with wide maroon velvet matting, signed with conjoined small "HR" at top right, and signed again on reverse "Hugo Robus 1954"...

Painting of various complete southwestern pottery vessels, and a broken shard of one, all seemingly floating weightless in an intentionally poorly defined space, all painted in a hyperrealist style, signed at lower right "Doyle" and dated 2005 with copyright symbol. A label on the reverse gives the artist's full name, Ed Doyle, the title, "The First Shard", and the original price, $1000. The oil on canvas on board measures 23 5/8" by 23 5/8" and 30" by 30" as framed...

Old watercolor drawing (perhaps charcoal in places as well) with slight use of white gouache, unsigned, the subject a younger man of the sixteenth century or thereabouts. The drawing (15 1/2" by 12") is on grayish heavy paper (the true color is indicated by the first two images---the subsequent ones were taken in different light, suggesting a more tan color). The age of the drawing itself is especially difficult to determine in this instance...

An oil on fine weave canvas featuring a Mediterranean-looking coastal village, 12 1/2" by 19 1/2" (18" by 25" as framed), signed at lower right by the noted Armenian artist VARTAN MAHOKIAN (also known as Wartan MAKHOKIAN, or combinations thereof), born in Trabzon on present-day northeast Turkey's Black Sea coast in 1869, died in 1937 in Nice, France. The painting shows two small sailing craft, one towing a dinghy, off of a whitewashed fishing village...

A very finely crafted watercolor painting of an 18th century dandy in an elegant aristocratic interior, " by " (" by " framed), dedicated "Yours Sincerely" at lower right, and signed rather illegibly below that. The work's quality means the artist must be listed but try as I might, I cannot decipher the name. More than likely the work is circa 1890. Condition is excellent. I opened the old backing in hopes of finding more information or writing but there was none to be found. The short nail...

A watercolor painting of a lonely lighthouse on coastal dune cliffs of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, signed at lower right by artist HARVEY JOHN DODD (1933-2011) and dated there 1987. This appears to be an unusually large example of the artist's work, at 21 1/2" by 15 1/4" (29" by 23 1/2" as framed in light wood with Plexiglas). Dodd is known for his coastal and marine works. He maintained the Harvey Dodd Gallery, a fixture in Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod, since 1959, claiming it as the old...

A circa late 1930's to early 1940's painting titled on the reverse "Molas Lake and Needle Mountains, Silverton Colorado", signed at lower right by artist C. H. Rising. The oil on canvas measures 12" by 16" and is unframed. A light cleaning would be helpful but you could just throw a regular sized frame around this and enjoy it on your wall. Nicely executed work by a talented yet apparently unknown artist. The mountains are well painted, streaked with snow of the previous winter. The lake re...

A finely painted work titled at lower right "Culebra Range, Colo.", signed at lower left by artist CARROLL COLBY CHILD (1868-1932). The Culebra Range is in extreme southern Colorado, very near the New Mexico border and not far from Taos. It is noted for Culebra Peak, the southernmost of the so-called "Fourteeners" (Rocky Mountain peaks of at least 14,000 feet summit elevation). Child was born in Weybridge, Vermont after the Civil War. He seems to have painted mostly in watercolor, with many ...

A very appealing small forest interior painting on board, 9" by 11" (12" by 14" in modern day gold framing), unsigned on front but on reverse in old hand is written (difficult to decipher) "near XXX farm Hampstead Heath/Oct. 3 1908 5 PM/P. P. (XXXX)". The word after P.P. is the last name of the artist but it has defied my efforts to make it out. The scene is painted in luminous tan colors with light grayish green and cream here and there, all in a very impressionistic blond to silvery light. ...