Mid-century painting, help with name?

I picked this up because it seemed pretty well done (though with some obvious damage) and was signed and dated. I included the signature from a similar painting too. But I can't make any sense of the signature; the letters don't seem to go together into a recognizable name, so I'm thinking possibly asian or eastern european? Any guesses?

 

Searches come up with Serbian, Kroatian, and Rumanian.
So, calling @Branka and @Xristina .

 

The surname Kecati is most commonly found in India according to the internet.

Debora

 

Could be.
When I searched further I found the surname Kécati in Lebanon and Syria.

 

She's a dead ringer alright

 

Not Serbian or Croatian.

 

Apostrophe on e’ in Kecati may be a clue on language/name origin.

 

I find it unusual that the little mark above the e - is gray in the top painting, but all dark and brown in the bottom one. Just unusual, odd to see it done that way, that's all.

 

Same dot above e’ appears in green picture.

 

Yes, that's the one I said, "all dark and brown in the bottom" painting, just very odd that the artist didn't want that apostrophe to stand out in your painting. It's unusual and surely the artist had some method to that madness, but I have no idea what!

 

Disregarding the spelling, (which was probably anglicised anyway) it occurs to me this is a painting from the village of Kecati (Kekati) in India, painted by H. Gasti. Gasti is also an Indian surname BTW.

Kekati is a small Village/hamlet in Nagar Taluka in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra State, India. It comes under Shahapur Panchayath. It belongs to Khandesh and Northern Maharashtra region . It belongs to Nashik Division . It is located 5 KM towards East from District head quarters Ahmednagar. 235 KM from State capital Mumbai

Kekati is surrounded by Ahmednagar Taluka towards west , Parner Taluka towards west , Rahuri Taluka towards North , Pathardi Taluka towards East .

Ahmednagar , Rahuri , Pathardi , Shirur are the near by Cities to Kekati.

 

Amazing job INH, as always! Thank you! I had spent some time without finding anything. I believe you are right that it is Hilda G. Kecati in Brookline; painting was found in a Boston area estate cleanout so it fits perfectly.

Although she worked as an artist, I can't find any of her work on liveauctioneers, and no entry in askart, so it appears she didn't break through. I could buy the other painting super-cheap, but not clear to me it is worth it? What do you think? Here it is:

 

They are indeed applied on top, so kind of mixed media. I always assume that things that go in an estate cleanout are not interesting to the family, though I have no idea what estate these would have come from, so could have been in other hands since the 60's. If she sold her work, I would have thought I would see some indications in liveauctioneers, but maybe that is another bad assumption. I don't do facebook or ancestry so don't have any way to track people down, would be happy to get them back, however.

 

My name is Tina (or Thuy) from Sydney, Australia. My husband & I lived in the apartment above Hilda in Quincy. We were young newlyweds & had moved to the US for my husband's work. Hilda was like family & we did everything together despite the difference in ages.

I recognise her signature on your painting. I should have photos somewhere of some other paintings. I will post them as soon as I find them and tell you more about her history. Sadly she did pass away a few years ago and the obituary link someone has posted is of Hilda.

 

I’m always fascinated how this site not only pulls the world together (so needed!) but more so how some of the most seemingly obscure questions get resolved. Thanks for posting Tina!