I've recently started reading a Princetown University book about Rackstraw Downes. He was recommended to me by my mentor because it could possibly lead to some insight into my own work. Downes, who is a British born painter who produces:
"realistic landscapes painted on decidedly horizontal canvases (some, only as tall as a standard sheet of paper, stretch several feet wide), Downes focuses on freeway overpasses, cement factories, ventilation towers and traffic intersections, but neither these constructions nor the ecological and market critiques they imply are Downes' "subjects." Downes is a "hard-core 'eyeball' realist" Storr tells us in a thoughtfully elegant essay. Storr's efficient moniker cuts to the quick of Downes' practice: Downes paints by looking deeply; he shuns the assistance of photography and, instead, returns to a site several times during as long as a two- to three-year period to render each scene as faithfully as possible. The goal is not to recreate what can be explicitly seen, but to reveal what can be apprehended only through attention sustained across a vast span of time. In an essay contributed by the artist, Downes describes his process as "pitting all-out empiricism against habit, memory, formulae, precedent." As this book shows, Downes makes "the facts," subjective though they may be, beautiful things to see."
I am so much fascinated by his work that today I went to two locations in Portland, Maine that he painted. The way that Downes interprets the scene at hand is very intriguing. And, his commitment to his art is admirable. I plan to visit more of his locals in the next coming months. Above you will find a photographic study that I did today.
