The paintings of Gus Van Sant are pure cinema

The Indie auteur has spent a career making cult favourites such Drugstore Cowboy and My Private Idaho. On his days off, however, he would paint. A new book explores his adventures in art. 

Before cinema, Gus Van Sant’s first love was painting. The director behind cult independent films like Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Elephant, Van Sant attended Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970s, double majoring in painting and film for the first two years before devoting himself to film for the last two. “For me, making films is second nature,” says the American director. “Making paintings is more dependent on the work I put in.”