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San Francisco Market Street ca1941

This is the finished watercolor. It has been properly scanned and lit on a high resolution flat bed scanner. This was Market Street in 1941 just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. I created it with a single frame from a talented home movie cinematographer by the name of John H Summers and more than 140 photographs from the San Francisco Public Library and my home movies from a trip we took to California in 1957. It is not the way it actually was, but rather the way my mind's eye perceived and remembered it. The proportions in the painting are completely different than any image resource I used. I have often stated in lectures and demonstrations something I realized in 1984. That is the mind perfects what the eye sees. The most notable difference from any of my photo resources that I used is that the Ferry Terminal Tower is about two stories higher than in any of the resource photos I used. The painting is proportioned as if it were viewed through a telephoto lens. This gives the scene a friendlier more inviting quality than if it were seen through a wide angle lens. A wide angle lens will obscure detail and the reduces the detail the brain receives making it much more difficult for the viewer to orient himself and get a sense of place. What the observer sees in this painting is the image that would be remembered had he or she stood at the vantage point, walked away from the scene and thought back to that observed moment in time in the mind's eye. I accomplished this by doing a free hand sketch and drew it as I unraveled the elements of this immensely complex scene and saw it develop as a natural extension of my observations of all the various images I used of San Francisco's Market Street as it looked in 1941, right down to the movies playing at the theaters. For those of you who expressed an interest in seeing the completed painting, I hope it was worth the wait.

24 Comments

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Anonymous Guest 19 Apr 2014

5CWc8w Great blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Really Great.

Anonymous Guest 28 Feb 2014

LDT4v0 Im thankful for the blog article.Much thanks again. Great.

Anonymous Guest 08 Jan 2014

eLqXoC wow, awesome post.Really thank you! Much obliged.

Anonymous Guest 01 Oct 2013

Hello! My name is Olga. I from Moscow (Russia). I admire your works! ! ! In our family archive there is a photo which was identified thanks to your picture. Such feeling develops that mine the great-grandmother and the great-grandfather go down the street while you draw it. Even the signs "esquire" and "telenews" hangs on the same place! I will be grateful for any answer. Yours faithfully, Olga Pismennya (Moscow) For communication [email protected]

Anonymous Guest 01 Oct 2013

Hello! My name is Olga. I from Moscow (Russia). I admire your works! ! ! In our family archive there is a photo which was identified thanks to your picture. Such feeling develops that mine the great-grandmother and the great-grandfather go down the street while you draw it. Even the signs "esquire" and "telenews" hangs on the same place! I will be grateful for any answer. Yours faithfully, Olga Pismennya (Moscow) For communication [email protected]

Claire Wilson 03 Jan 2008

Good Grief - WOOOW - Your paintings are fantastic, such fine detail to everything, you definately put your heart and soul into your work :)

Heather Page 01 Jan 2008

Just gorgeous!

Lisa Hill 05 Nov 2007

absolutely amazing, the attention to detail is stunning, great work, Bert is right this is REAL ART! Lisa x

Rob Slijkhuis 26 Jun 2007

Great fine-art :)

Tia Antoniades 16 Jun 2007

Your work and eye for detail is fantastic!

Julie Mayser 12 Jun 2007

Superb ! Wonderfully descriptive piece.

Alexandra Dvinitninova 12 Jun 2007

Beautiful comosition, rare to see paintings like that these days of such quality.

Anne Vis 12 Jun 2007

Outstanding artwork and awesome details, Stanton!

Regina Calton 10 Jun 2007

You always help us to time-travel. Wonderful piece!

bert cortes 10 Jun 2007

Stanton, This is gorgeous. Another piece of real art. You are the greatest.

Reba McDonald 10 Jun 2007

Again, excellent work Stanton.

Tabitha Borges 10 Jun 2007

stunning lanscape

helen tyralik 10 Jun 2007

fantastic detail,well done

Mrs.David Jobes(Dee) Jobes 09 Jun 2007

Fantastic Brushwork with a Gorgeous soft palette!!!You can almost hear the sounds of the city!!!A Masterpiece!!!Brilliant Fine Art,Stan!!!Sincerely,Dee&David

ArtAblaze 09 Jun 2007

I like the strong details in this painting.

donna young 09 Jun 2007

wonderful!

Lawrence Hickman 09 Jun 2007

awsome...very beautiful

tommy thomas 09 Jun 2007

what a sense of place you have created with this piece. very well done!

Jean M. Laffitau 09 Jun 2007

Stanton you are just BRILLIANT!!!