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Main Street Celebration

Main street! How often as a young man did those words cross my mind. Main street was for me a dreamy, idyllic destination like some foreign country one reads of and thinks of often, but rarely gets to visit. A place where we as children would go to on Saturdays aboard bicycles that fairly flew as we peddled down the dusty city streets towards our destinations.

Main street was a place of activity, a place of delights that stirred the imagination of every child: a five-and-dime held the opportunity for a foot long bag of popcorn that could be bought for a nickel; a barber shop that was a gathering place for the old men of the village whose stories filled the air like a gentle aroma of days gone by. And of course everywhere were the townspeople – full of the buoyant energy of a day in town, ready to swap yarns and share a chuckle or two.

In my Main Street Memories Collection, I celebrate the main streets of my imagination. Places where trolley cars clang, movie matinees await us, and a celebration is always in progress. These are the places where people gather to do their business and share the activities of a more simple ear. I hope you’ll meet me on main street!

  • The Placerville, California tetrad was coined as the Gold Country SeriesMain Street Celebration, Main Street Courthouse, Main Street Matinee, and Main Street Trolley.
  • Thomas Kinkade honored his eldest daughter Merritt, by giving her a stand on the right-hand side of the composition.
  • A retired lieutenant governor of California, Ed Reinecke, commissioned Main Street Celebration, so Thom put the Lt. Governor’s dog in the painting – the shaggy dog in the left-hand corner.
  • The people and the name on the signs are actually modeled after real people in Main Street Celebration; even note the gentleman in the right-hand corner carrying a Kinkade painting.
  • The original title for Main Street Celebration was Old Sacramento.
Title Main Street Celebration
Published June 1995
Subject Location Sacramento, California
Collection Main Street Memories I

Image Size

18 x 27"

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