Acrylic painting signed 'Carol Vance' (not authenticated)

This is an acrylic painting on canvas presented in a square format, measuring approximately 12 by 12 inches based on owner-supplied notes, depicting an elderly man sitting on a white bucket while fishing with a rod. The physical characteristics include textured brushwork, a visible weave of the gallery-wrapped canvas, and a vibrant color palette dominated by shades of blue for the man's shirt and trousers, contrasted against earthy greens and yellows in the background landscape and grassy foreground. Notable features include the subject matter of an older fisherman and a signature located at the lower left corner which reads 'Carol Vance'. The surface condition appears clean with no obvious tears, craquelure, or major paint loss visible in the photograph, though the work remains unauthenticated. The style is illustrative and contemporary, utilizing impressionistic broad strokes rather than hyperrealism to capture light and shadow on the figure and the bucket. The owner's notes claim this is an authentic original acrylic painting by Carol Vance depicting an elderly grandpa fishing for trout, but these statements remain unverified by physical inspection. The attribution in the name rests purely upon the presence of the signature legible at the lower left, while the medium is identified as acrylic based on the paint application and visual texture.

Based on what I can see in the provided image, this is a 12 by 12 inch gallery-wrapped acrylic painting depicting an elderly man fishing, featuring visible textured brushwork and a vibrant palette. The lower left corner bears a signature reading 'Carol Vance'. Per user submission: attributed to an original painting by Carol Vance. However, I can't verify from a photo whether the signature is contemporary to the paint or added later, and I would need physical inspection to confirm the medium, canvas aging, and overall condition. The estimate provided assumes the work is by the named artist; under this working assumption, comparable contemporary illustrative acrylic works of similar small dimensions typically trade within the $150 to $300 range in secondary decorative art markets, driven by moderate demand for accessible figurative art. If the attribution is incorrect and the piece is a decorative reproduction, studio copy, or executed simply 'in the style of' the artist, the market value would likely drop to a purely decorative level of $40 to $80. To move beyond this visual hypothesis and confirm the authorship, an in-person examination by a qualified fine art appraiser, along with provenance documentation or direct comparison with documented exemplars, would be necessary.