Petronėlė Gerlikienė, née Kromelyte (June 19, 1905, Chicago, United States – March 14, 1979, Vilnius, Lithuania), was a Lithuanian painter and textile folk artist.
Petronele Gerlikiene entered the Lithuanian art scene at quite a venerable age after she retired and was living with her son's family in Vilnius.
About her textile artwork, Man and Woman Petronele said: “I need to have a very translucent yellow background in order to embroider Paradise.
Paradise is above the houses and only the thin branches of trees covered in blossoms and fruit support Adam and Eve.
)She was encouraged by her daughter-in-law, who brought pieces of cardboard and paint from her son's (professional painter) studio.
First, with a dry brush, with its stem (“why stroke and daub needlessly”), Petronele would outline the place of the main character.
The very next day she demanded a large piece of cardboard – she intended to draw The Ship – Noah's Ark.
Moreover, Gerlikiene's works often surpass those made by professionals in terms of originality of the vision, uniqueness of interpretation, and humour.
These “eternal” subjects interpreted with understanding and humour, men are often ridiculed like in the picture Picking Cherries: calm, smiling woman pulls a man by the hand into a lake.
Biography, album; hardcover, bilingual (Lithuanian, English) ISBN 9986-9189-6-0 Gerlikiene, P., // World Encyclopedia of Naive Art, 1985, p. 267, 289.