Chaloi Leonty Oil on Paper Winter Landscape Painting, 1970 treen shoe shaped like a bird and

shaped like a bird and originally intended as a salt dish I believe

but also those tiny benches

8" l x 2" w x 3/8" d

I'd think they were made for baking mini quiche or pot pies or the like

and with a really nice warm patina

Chaloi Leonty Oil on Paper Winter Landscape Painting, 1970 treen shoe shaped like a bird andI've gone back to the same dealer in Russia three times now to purchase paintings by Chaloi Leonty, whose estate the dealer handles; I just think he was a really good landscape painter, and Russian prices are pretty good! The other two I've just listed, featuring sea views, are not what I imagine when I think of Russia, but this wintery landscape most certainly is though it reminds me a bit of long winters in the Purple Mountains of Western Mass, too!