This painting is not what it appears to be... It is not a panorama nor is it a number of scenes stitched together. It is in fact a perspective-based illusion designed to allow the viewer to replay my experience. To understand what I observed as I walked from one street to the other trying to find the best composition only to realise that I had to capture it all. I wanted the viewer to believe that they too could "look" around the corner as I did.

No single observation point could ever return this scene. what you are looking at is a virtual, composite, observation point built from two major references set 20 feet apart. A great deal of mathematical "juggling" was necessary to permit the desired geometry and resolve conflicts that arose as elements competed for space. The resultant painting has one major horizon line and many, many vanishing points. Nothing was transferred, projected or traced. Every line was calculated and hand drawn. The very act of doing so offered a great deal of creative freedom and hopefully produced a credible, alternate reality.

Finally, it may be interesting to point out that the painting relies upon numerous "deceptions". For example:

(1) The rightmost buildings and road do not share the same vanishing point (or horizon) as the café, its canopy and path. This allowed the buildings to better fill the space they sat in but did mean that the road would cut into the path prematurely. The girl carrying her baby plays an important role in hiding this.

(2) Shadows cast by the early morning sun produced the best patterns across the composition hence it is this light that illuminates the painting. However, the reflections in the right hand window are based upon the mid-afternoon sun when the buildings on the right were lit to their best thereby generating the strongest reflections.