Marvelous Gravel Painting of Horse in Landscape with Rope Border mid-century glass vase With wonderfully hand-painted white letters

With wonderfully hand-painted white letters popping against the black tank and equally perfect yellow carriage on trusty black wheels below

I've seen a few of this sort of tree trunk or limb boxes around

where one might spend hours getting lost in it

and other cherished things

It is signed as well

Marvelous Gravel Painting of Horse in Landscape with Rope Border mid-century glass vase With wonderfully hand-painted white lettersI've been thinking about this piece, and especially about that white horse ethereally floating between earth and sky in front of that bushy tree, since the moment I saw it (at the Wellesley, MA estate sale of artist Lois Gross Smiley). I am doubtful this is a piece she made, though I don't know for sure but I'd say she had a pretty terrific eye in choosing it and keeping it near! Whoever its maker, I think they elevated the kitschy medium of colored