Souvenir met stadsgezichten uit San Diego, Californië before 1935

Walter Elton Averrett made this souvenir with cityscapes from San Diego, California. It's so neat how he pieced together these little windows into a place, almost like a visual travelogue. I wonder what Averrett was thinking as he painted each scene. Was he trying to capture the light, the vibe, the memory of being there? Or was it more about the colors, the shapes, and the joy of putting paint to paper? The crisp buildings and lush foliage seem a little dream-like. This piece reminds me that all painting, even souvenir art, is about seeing and thinking, and how we respond to the world around us. It makes you think about the conversations artists have across time, riffing on each other’s ideas, remixing styles, and keeping the whole wild game of image-making alive.