Brett Goodroad, a painter who left San Francisco for the Arizona high desert in 2021, once drove produce trucks across the Southwest, and that headlong view through the windshield shaped his landscapes.
 

Jordan Stein, the author, recalls visiting him there: big meals, hikes, ice cream, and Brett's answer to "what is art?" ("I know it's non-violent").
 

Stein argues Brett gives up control over meaning, so each painting becomes an event, like weather, inviting viewers to see faces, donkeys, or Ophelia in the surfaces.

His work treats earth, paint, and mind as animate landscapes, with raw textures (canvas, silk, copper) pointing to mortality and renewal.
 

Now back in northeastern California, Brett shows in Paris for the first time, across three storefront galleries at Crevecoeur, one a former antique shop.