Sunday, June 21, 2009

Burbank Tracks

Here's a small one from Google Street View that I did tonight. Tried to work fast and treat it as a plein air piece. The address is 452 N. Front Street in Burbank, California. The overpass is W. Magnolia Blvd. with the Golden State Highway behind me. I was inspired to check out this area from Bill Wray's recent plein air outings I've read about on his blog.

9" x 12", oil on masonite

3 comments:

Katherine Kean said...

Wonderful color.

I love the idea of using Google Street Views as a painting reference - it really opens up options, doesn't it?

I seem to remember a copyright rule concerning architecture, so that might be something to check on. I wonder how Google deals with that?

Billy Guffey said...

Hi Katherine. Unless a building is trademarked or copyrighted they're free for anyone to interpret or photograph. There aren't many buildings that are trademarked. The Transamerica building in San Francisco is one though.

The Street View technology is equal to walking down a street and taking pictures from public property.

I've had conference calls with Street View team members, and Google has given permission for artists to use Street View as reference without fear of copyright infringement. I have that in writing.

I have another blog that uses Street View as a reference for a different city in the world each month. There's more info there.

Katherine Kean said...

Thanks Bill!

I really appreciate the clarification, as well as all the research you've done on the topic.