Behind the Store at Prospect

An artist whose realist landscapes provide both subtle commentary on humanity's relation to nature and the larger tradition of landscape painting, the British-born Downes was educated at Cambridge University before coming to America to study at Yale University. He worked as an art critic before turning his energies to painting. Downes created meticulous landscapes of the rural Northeast, New Jersey, and Texas that reveal an interest in light and atmosphere. While influenced by Fairfield Porter, Downes's work engages with nineteenth-century landscape painting, particularly the work of John Constable. "Behind the Store at Prospect" presents Downes's typical format, a long horizontal canvas that provides a panoramic view of the rural landscape devoid of people. While individuals do not populate his canvas, the subject of his work is the human presence in nature, an intervention in the environment that is marked by a wealth of visual signs. The railway tracks, telephone poles, road, house, and cars all bear witness to how humanity transforms the environment even within the rural setting. Downes's paintings usually take years to complete, leading to the exceptionally finished surface that provides their visual immediacy. He wrote, "My paintings are executed from start to finish on site in the landscape...When you work outdoors, you surrender a lot of control over your subject and that is what I like about it, the interactive, experiential character of it."