Chaloi Leonty, Russian, 1970 Oil on Cardboard River Landscape with Big Sky hand-painted object The fishing pole has a

The fishing pole has a little give up and down but not a lot

and phallus peeking out below that terrifically patterned green cloth

I wonder if these charming old barber's pole whimsies were carved by a barber in his spare time

the mane and ears of her lion-dog companion

Chaloi Leonty, Russian, 1970 Oil on Cardboard River Landscape with Big Sky hand-painted object The fishing pole has aI purchased a small painting by this same Soviet artist, Chaloi Leonty, several months ago, which was such a gem I went back to the seller in Russia to buy two more larger in scale. I especially love the huge painterly blue sky of this one just right against the soft, varied greens and browns of the land and deeper blue of the snaking river. I also love how the bank of trees at center left is perfectly offset by the bridge just to its right, with a