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A high-angle view of a vast, snowy landscape covered in countless small, jagged peaks. The repetitive white and grey textures create a dense, undulating pattern across the frame.

Art: Neil Raitt's hypnotic landscapes will mess with your mind

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Date
28 August 2013

Think of those dreams you have after watching too much Twin Peaks where you find yourself walking across delirious landscape shots that just keep on repeating and you will come somewhere close to the Royal College of Art graduate Neil Raitt’s painting. It is a pretty extraordinary experience, from canvases cratered by mountains to multiplying forests barely broken by their trunks; perspective slips your grip, abandoning you somewhere between the cinematic and an untrustworthy reality.

Is there something dark here as spectacle is reduced to pattern but its repetition disorientates rather than bores? Where mountains are made unrecognisable, become a texture, are hypnotic, reminding you that they are never a place you would want to be lost in reality. Moving closer though, it’s impossible not to be drawn in by how maddeningly beautiful they are, by Neil’s incessant attention to detail, with every jut in the mountain face hand painted. Indulge in them, be absorbed into the painting and then maybe leave it a while before bed.

A repeating pattern of snow-capped mountain peaks in shades of purple and white. The peaks are arranged in a dense, rhythmic grid across the frame.
Above

Neil Raitt: Avalanche

A dark, textured surface in deep green and black. The image is filled with a dense, grainy pattern of small, irregular specks.
Above

Neil Raitt: Evergreen

An art gallery installation featuring two large, textured square canvases in blue and dark green. In the centre, a low black plinth holds a collection of metallic objects and a glass vessel.
Above

Neil Raitt: Royal College of Art show 2013

A painting of a dense forest of dark green coniferous trees. The trees are tightly packed, creating a repetitive pattern across the canvas.
Above

Neil Raitt: Evergreen

A painting of a vast, jagged mountain range covered in snow. The peaks are rendered in sharp, repetitive angles of white, blue and earthy brown.
Above

Neil Raitt: Avalanche

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Emily Beber

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