Dorothy R. Santos

Over the weekend, my girlfriend surprised me by reserving the “Nature” room at the Andiron Inn in Little River, CA. It was an amazing couple of days at the Inn. The overall ambiance and decor of the cabins was reminiscent of 1950s/early 1960s in New York’s Andirondacks (that I’ve ever been but I’ve seen pictures thanks to the vintage Viewmaster in the room). I posted the picture above because I didn’t want to be so critical with these few posts because I’ll just come out and say it, my mind has been all over the place and feeling a bit fried from art theory, art criticism, and art history. I needed to post something fun and quirky so here it is.

My girlfriend speculated it was done in oil, which is a bit odd considering most paint by number kits are done in acrylic. Although paint by number paintings are simple and straightforward (what you see is what you get), the story behind this phenomena piqued my interest. I found a Wiki that notes the origin of the paint by number kits. Of course, with further research, I found a Smithsonian site dedicated to the history of Max S. Klein, the owner of Palmer Paint Company of Detroit and creator of the Paint by Number kits.