[citation needed] From 1973 feeling that his work, while well informed by conceptual art practice, lacked a realistic visceral dimension, he immersed himself in a study of the techniques of 17th century Dutch masters, the Abstract Expressionists and significantly the Chan painters and calligraphers of China.

In some works he treats the entire history of landscape painting almost as a found object; manipulating and cross-referencing styles and techniques from diverse periods and cultures, within a post-modernist fusion of abstract, trompe-l'œil and figurative imagery.

[1] Following a group exhibition at LYC Gallery in Cumbria, with Andy Goldsworthy and Michael Jepson; Rankle's work in landscape art became starkly politicised.

These included a 30 metre long scroll painting produced on the top of Beachy Head in Sussex with his collaborator Jan Stephens, and several notable pieces with the left-field artists group Order out of Chaos; one of which 'Discarded Sculptures' (1986) was the first project to bring his work to the attention of a wider public.

Curated with Christine Goldschmidt for the Hastings Trust, this project involved a wide range of collaborators including Mike von Joel, Laetitia Yhap, Andrew Graham-Dixon (who were the judges of the competition), Art in Ruins, Lynne Green, Nick Wates and the book and exhibition designer Jeremy Brook.