I happened upon this blog post yesterday, about a young man in Britain who can barely speak, but who has the uncanny ability to draw anything just after a moment’s glance. In the photo he can be seen drawing a large, nearly photographically accurate panorama of Rome after a short helicopter ride over the city. To see samples of his work, Mr. Wiltshire’s official web site is here.

To say that I’m amazed is an understatement. His oil paintings remind me somehow of pinhole photography – almost like a truer representation of what the human eye sees than what’s processed through the artifice of a camera and lens. Check out the “Los Angeles Traffic” sample on this page to see what I mean. But my favorite thing he does is his pencil drawings. There’s a wonderful human energy to the archetectural subjects he chooses, and I think it comes from the fact that he freehands all those lines. It slows the eye, makes you stop and look. The fact that he does this all from memory is just a wonder. It’s both humbling and inspiring, and makes me glad to be on a planet with so many different kinds of people with so many different interests and abilities.