Find more Venice California memorabilia here.
Paintings from the Urban Aborigine series are here.

Venice Beach Scene - Enhanced Vintage Postcard
by Pat Hartman

"Surf Bathing at Venice, Cal." from the Newman Postcard Co., was postmarked in 1910

A lovely vintage postcard, from the days when a postcard only cost one cent to mail, mounted on canvasboard with a decorative border individually created to complement this particular card.

For a long time I had the urge to combine the concept of Venice with the Urban Aborigine painting style in some way, since it expresses the pagan spirit that so characterizes Venice. Finally the seed ripened into the Enhanced Postcard.

The scene is Venice Beach, California in the days when Venice was a major tourist destination for families who enjoyed amusement parks.

Before 1907, the Post Office owned the entire back of any postcard- this was the type of card called Undivided Back. The sender had to write the message, if any, on the front, and the manufacturer often left blank space for the purpose. If the picture covered the whole front, the sender might write on the picture - so we can’t blame them for defacing a lovely card, there was no choice. Collectors do not consider writing on the face of a pre-1907 postcard to be a flaw.

Next in the history of postcards came Divided Back cards, where the sender could write a message in an area of the back, smaller than the address area. Later on, the message part and the address part became equal.

This mixed media piece is 8" x 6" acrylic on canvasboard and has no frame or hanger. You will need to decide how best to frame and hang it, in accordance with your own decor.
Please remember that colors may show somewhat differently, depending on your computer monitor and other factors.

Thanks for looking! Please read this general information:

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