I bought the book of his work that was on kickstarter a few years ago, because ski maps are something I've always kind of loved.
Honestly it was a little disappointing -- the maps in the book are just the paintings of the mountains/terrain, no trail/lift/amenity markings, and thumbing threw it for a little while, they all kind of look exactly the same.
Trails and lifts change and get renamed over the years so they aren’t painted by James. They’re added by the ski resort later so in James’s book, he shared his raw paintings not the augmentation done by the resort.
I wonder if that’s an artistic decision or a reflection of how the work is split up between the painter and the resorts. But I agree, it’s more interesting to see the finished maps with all the runs and lifts.
Honestly it was a little disappointing -- the maps in the book are just the paintings of the mountains/terrain, no trail/lift/amenity markings, and thumbing threw it for a little while, they all kind of look exactly the same.