I couldn't disagree with you more. There's a rich tradition[1] in the creative world of improving a product through self-imposed restrictions. Sure, you don't get any artistic credit just because you did something in a difficult way; a single red square has the same merit whether you clicked each pixel in turn or used a flood tool. But exploring the limits of a medium itself certainly does.

People can argue all day about "what is art?", but to me, it's something that provokes thoughtfulness or a sense of wonder. Something that communicates a view of the world. And I think this [ http://hallasko.com/collections/prints/products/looking-up ] and this [ http://hallasko.com/collections/prints/products/aglowfish ] easily meet that condition, while also exploring what can be done in the medium.

Yeah, we're talking about that they were made in Paint, because he's showing us a painter[2] can do with Paint. If you ask me, that's valuable.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrained_writing

[2] He has a lot of experience as an actual painter, too, which means he's a lot more qualified than I am to decide something's artistically valuable.