This painting was purchased around 1950. We have no idea where it was purchased or who painted it, but the owners did a lot of traveling. It seems to be on some fine linen glued over some board or canvasboard. Flickr
Does anyone have any idea what this is?
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Looks like a representation of Australian Aboriginal Rock Art.
Thanks John, I had the same feeling but that’s all it is (I’m not an expert in these things). Does anyone else have opinions or evidence either way? (my one bump!)
I’m not an expert by any means, but it doesn’t look like indigenous Australian art to me - the forms are all wrong. It looks more like an interpretation of American or even European indigenous rock art.
Here we go:
http://archaeopedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Kitsch
It’s a (presumably) modern copy of iconic New Zealand rock painting style.
Yep, I was gonna say it’s ancient Maori art, but I wasn’t sure. We used to have that design on… er, something that I can’t remember. A stamp, maybe.
Edited to say: Yes, a stamp.
Yes, Maori rock art is the winner!! Thanks!
Also, see this:
http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049
See, THIS is what I don’t like about Real Life. If we were living in a bad novel, that’d turn out to be part of a map to reveal the location of the Treasure of the New Zealand Templars.
The other parts of the map? Well, you’ll just have to read the next chapter…
(Oh, did I mention how dangerous the modern descendants of the New Zealand Templars are, and how they’re only about an hour behind you as you criss-cross the globe to construct the map?)
(With a rag-tag band of quirky sidekicks you collect along the way… oh, and a gorgeous-yet-brilliant Maori Rune expert, of course…)
See this thread for other “Things that would be the start of something if they happened in a movie”. But of course, don’t lead to diddley-squat because we’re stuck IRL…
I hope you find it’s worth something (if you don’t want to keep it, that is)! 
Do Maori do stamping?
The reason I ask is because the item in the original post: Flickr
and the one linked later by ratatoskK http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/59/LotID/049
have some identical elements, just rearranged. Look at them side by side.
Isamu I’m going to keep it and have it restored (it has some mold).
Motorgirl it appears to have been done by a poet/artist named A.R.D. Fairburn.
A good Antique Road Show candidate.