Painting: Market with So Much Less than Meets the Eye?

This oil painting on canvas by Frederic Marsanne, titled "Market with So Much Less than Meets the Eye?" challenges perceptions and explorations. Artist Statement This is one of the first market scenes I ever painted - back in 1993. When I was studying accounting at Yale. Instead of cramming for my final exam, I was doing this. Oh my... This artwork is one of my wife's favorites. Based on a picture/photograph I have since misplaced and reinterpreted somehow, it is beautiful but I find it frustrating. I enjoyed painting it at the time, but I outgrew its aesthetics long ago.  Arguably, the colors are alluring and the scene rather appealing. But it's essentially a reproduction, and I value most the pursuit of the authentic and the original and - the ultimate prize - the discovery of new patterns.  New ideas, surprising associations, and astonishing takes, are what I seek to incubate in my paintings. The way I see it:  I do not care nearly as much about the beautiful as I do about the impa