Dreamlike surrealistic noir citiscape framed oil on masonite by listed San Francisco artist Raymond Howell. Nicely framed with with painting floated in a black painted wood frame. Painting measures 24 x 36 inches to edge of masonite, 25 x 37 inches to outside of frame. Excellent condition, circa 1970's. Raymond Howell’s paintings are based in realism, with eclectic influences of surrealism and impressionism. In recent years he has experimented with collage, mural painting and print-making and has created series of works on such subject matter as jazz musicians who were innovators in their art form. An artist whose work focuses on African Americans, Howell describes himself as a role model for artists who have traditionally been reluctant to paint African American subjects. Howell has been a longtime fixture in the Bay Area art scene. In the mid 1960’s he opened Art Associates West, a gallery and art school in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, which operated for nearly a decade. Howell’s 1965 painting The Brown Family was shown at the opening of the Oakland Museum, and was later purchased for the museum collection. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States, and in 1999 Stanford University presented a 40 year retrospective of his paintings. Many of Howell’s works are street scenes with numerous figures in a dynamic setting. The artist depicts the figures leaning, as if into a strong wind, which gives the impression of motion.