Featured Watercolor Mystery

Hi all,

I'm not sure what to make of this 9" x 12" watercolor. The image is coming up on Google as Edgar Alwin Payne's.

R. Galek/Boone Payne?

Given examples of Payne's signature, my best guess is "Payne" is in the sig as an acknowledgement that it's a copy of his original. If so, we're left with what I'm seeing as R. Galek/Boone. Are you guys seeing the same?

If so, is this one artist or a collaboration signature?

 

The artist has indicated that it is a master copy after Payne.

 

I read R. Gelak.

 

I'd put the scene in Australia, based on my impression of the trees as my beloved Eucalyptus, of one variety or another. I may well be wrong, but...
Oh, yeah...I like it a lot. Eucalyptus in fog, maybe?

 

California is full with eucalyptus.

Debora

 

I'm not even sure what I'm seeing here. A framed watercolor? With signature R. Galek / something something? And it's taped onto the mat? And then are you showing it in reverse? So it's not taped onto the mat?

Debora

 

Yup...I was raised in San Diego, an' travelled US 101 with family as a youth, an' later by choice to avoid I-5, when I had my own wheels. I'm very fond of those places where now-huge Eucalyptus were set evenly in ranks & rows as a crop...probably in the last half of the 19th C; apparently the concept didn't prove viable, but those magnificent trees remain. To stroll among them, on their leaf, bark an' pod litter a foot or more deep an' to breath sea air saturated with the scent of Eucalyptus oil...is to revisit on a visceral level my childhood an' later formative experiences with a warmth an' delight rarely otherwise experienced in my dotage. Thanks for that pic of a highway near Lordsburg, Debora!

 

Hope the pic above clears up the confusion. It's all one piece. The mat (if we can call it that) folds over. And yes, the one pic was the back of the watercolor.

 

What part of the world did you find it in?

Debora

 

Agree with AJ artist name reads R Gelak.I read the second name starts with an E not B, and third letter is a G similar to the G in Gelak it's reads Edgar Payne the original artist.Maybe Richard Gelak NJ might be a fit for the artist

 

Apparently copying Edgar Payne's works is a thing. An art education exercise.

https://www.acrylicuniversity.com/blog/what-i-learned-about-painting-trees-from-artist-edgar-payne

Debora

 

Meant to write that. Typos.

NYC, USA