Wow. This man seems crazy when you first listen to and look at him. But when you look at his paintings- it is like looking at photographs. He is more interesting than other artists because he looks for deserted places and huge empty spaces that live lightly on the earth. He makes drawings and then paints. The paintings are unusual and fascinating because he looks in front of him, and paints in the middle of the canvas. Then he looks to the right, and paints on the right side. Same on the left, then he completely turns around 180 degrees, and keeps painting on the sides of the canvas, so that the perspective shows you a panoramic view and the center is largest, or seemingly closest. It is hard to describe this type of work but he is just in one word- incredible. Here is just one of his incredible paintings to show you.
He says he is not a landscape artist but paints his environment, his surroundings. This way, in Downes' words, "It gives you the idea that it is a physical thing that surrounds you and immediately takes you away from the flat-plane image of the world. 'Surroundings' implies that the landscape does really curve around you." (Segment: Rackstraw Downes in "Balance", 8 minutes, 44 seconds in/ 54:28)
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