Help with signature on oil painting and possible age.

I really think it says F W Young 1960. If you look at it at an angle from the right, that is what I and my hubby see.

The flowers or bushes were maybe the artist trying a new technique. They applied the orangeish spots to be flowers, then went back and put in the downstrokes of green to make the flowers look more slender with stems. If that makes sense! JMHO

 

I agree with those that think what's under the tree is not a sig. Like Happy said it looks to me also as an "artist trying a new technique." I also see the faint writing at an angle in the bottom right corner. I don't think it is a sig either. To me it looks like something scribbled on the painting in pencil or the like. I worked with that writing in hopes of making it out. I didn't have much luck. To me it looks like "F & Y" followed by either a "G" or dot and then more scribble. I am sure of the "F &" with either "Y" or "X" after it. Beneath the scribbled line of "F & Y" it looks like a price. A dollar, cent or hash/number/pound sign followed by 3 numbers: $466, $496, $4.66, $4.96; ¢466, ¢496; or #466, #496.

Am including a couple of my edited versions.
--- Susan

 

I was wondering why somebody would write on a painting with a pencil. And of course, if it's not a signature we don't know if the artist wrote on it, or if somebody later did that.

I mean, it would make more sense to write the price on the back, where somebody would be able to actually read it.

 

It hasn't stopped raining yet, so I still can't get any photographs in natural light. 3 or 4 days of rain and snow. I've lost count.

After seeing Amando's black and white photo I played with the signature on photoshop. I also took a close-up of the nails.

It looks Like Cosro or Coro and B. F The last two look like 44 or 84.

The light pencil like lettering also showed up in these photographs.
It really is strange how it completely disappears under bright lights and shows up much stronger in the photographs than it does in person.

 

there is no signature at the base of the tree,

 

That's the thing about art, we all can sit down and try to convince one another that it is a signature under the tree or not. If you like the painting, hold on to it. If you're trying to resale it, basically, all you have is subject matter, condition, and age. I would think that if the artist was a confident artist, the signature would of been visible. Sure, some artist do hide their sigs or monogram in the painting itself. So to say that the "stuff" under the tree isn't a sig is hard to say.

 

Nope....that was pretty easy to say !
Those are flowers...or leaves.....but the siggy is below that.

 

I know the signature is below the tree... I pointed that out right off the bat.

 

I know....that's why I re-stated it ...