Rackstraw Downes, Visiting Artist Lecture 1981

Rackstraw Downes lectures at Skowhegan talking about his artistic practice and showing a series of slides depicting his paintings and drawings. Downes draws on many of his inspirations ranging from literature, theory, philosophy, and historical and contemporary artists who have inspired his work. Downes’ paintings and drawings depict landscapes, urban enclaves, sporting events, city life, and nature. Downes speaks about the importance of embracing the difficulty in producing detailed work, and how details should be rendered in a way where they are kept together as one. Downes wants for both him and his viewers to get lost in his paintings. Downes tells the students he seeks to create a hallucinogenic sense of scale, and does so in his focus on details. Downes also tells the students that it is terribly important that they have an interest in their subject matter. Downes states how each artist has a different methodology of working: some artists have a clear idea in their head of something they want to paint, and bring little outside influence into their studios. Downes mentions to the students that a change occurred for him where he shifted from working abstractly to making paintings of the natural world. This allowed him to become a better painter, as painting from nature helped Downes’ process precede the idea of what he felt an image ought to be. Downes ends his lecture by stating how he wants viewers to be able to feel themselves mimicking the object and quality of a painting, which is something he tries to create in his work. This type of mimicry allows for animate life to exist in the painted reproductions.