Featured Pair of Watercolors

Hi friends,

Does anyone recognize the artist or the scenes for these watercolors?
Also, do you agree they are 50s-80s?

Image search is showing Spain as the scenes, but they look like Mexico to me. Also, the artist for whatever reason chose to sign his or her name differently from the one painting to the next. Appears to be signed either P or O Mejia.

Thanks for any help.

 

That's a llama. You need to look further south to the Andes. Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia.

Debora

 

Looks like the same initial to me, 'O', just signed differently. No idea why that would be, though.

 

Typically with souvenir art, the name of the artist isn't terribly important. But I do think O. Mejia is a possibility.

Debora

 

As usual, photograph including frames would be helpful. Frames can give an idea of age. As can stickers, labels and handwritten notations on back.

Debora

 

I remember seeing those coffered balconies in Cuzco, Peru. (Cusco)
The lady is not from Cuzco, her hat is from one of the surrounding villages. She is probably on her way to sell produce in the market.

 

They're called miradores. Can be found in Lima too.

Debora

 

Now you mention it, I have seen them in Lima. No llamas in Lima though.

 

No hills either.

Debora

 

Omara Mejia ; Columbian artist might be a possibility .

 

Don't think so. Colombian, for one thing, and this, for another.

Debora

 

I don't think there's any reason to associate the 2 signatures to one individual. Though the subjects are similar...and even the names appear to be so...their style of writing is so dis-similar as to be exclusive, imho.

 

I too wondered if they were by the hand of the same artist and, in the end, I decided they were. But could be wrong.

Debora

 

I see where you are coming from, and if I only had the 2 sigs to compare, I'd agree. But given the subjects and details of the paintings, fact that they were done on the same sized paper that looks to have aged (or whatever the correct term is) exactly the same, and were framed the same way, I'm pretty sure they were done by the same artist.

 

I didn't put pics of the frames because I didn't see anything telling on them, just generic wood borders, glass, and cardboard on back held in place by nails, but here are some pics of one (the other is framed the same). Dimensions are 12" x 20".

 

Thanks so much everyone for the feedback so far. It seems the artist will remain a mystery. I'm a bit curious about retail value for Peruvian miradores paintings of this size. Online examples seemed inflated or underpriced to me. Fair to say $75-150 each as a rough estimate? Also, I mentioned possible age before as 50s-80s. Anyone want to take a stab at it?

 

I'm not sure the average souvenir painting has much value as they're typically done by local painters. The frames are roughly the period you identified above, I'd think. Given they don't fit paintings, wonder if they weren't off the shelf. So vintage and before the era of mass tourism to Ecuador. You should be able to get directional pricing from similars on offer on the internet. Here are some Completed eBay listings.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...dkw=painting+ecuador+watercolor&LH_Complete=1

Debora

 

The artist is D Mejia.Two oil paintings 12×8 listed as Peruvian Street Scenes sold in 2013 at Michaans Auctions. ref(Mutual Art)

 

I'm not sure that's the same artist. Do the signatures match?

Debora

 

Given the diverseness of the signatures on the two subject paintings,it's a case of what signature to try to match to.It very hard to see the signatures on the two paintings on Mutual Art ,but on the first painting it appears that the artist signs his first initial more like an O than a D,as in the signature on the first subject painting.The fact that both sets of paintings are Peruvian Street Scenes,and the artist in both have the same surname,it seems logical to assume that they are by the same artist.As you alluded to earlier most Street artists are not overly concerned how they sign their work.Maybe someone will be able to find other artwork by the same artist and verify conclusively who the artist is.