The Work Ahead

I'm Kim Randleas, an oil painter working from the mountains of Eastern Oregon. My paintings are rooted in the people, history, and traditions of the American West.

This is where I’ll share the work behind the finished paintings: the historical research, museum collections, old photographs, books, artifacts, travels, and discoveries that influence what eventually reaches the canvas. It is an opportunity to look beyond the finished work and into the world from which it comes.

Over the past decade, I’ve painted many of the subjects that surround my life in the West. That work taught me how to observe, how to tell a story through paint, and how much meaning can be carried by a single image.

The next stage of my work will go deeper.

The history of the American West is too vast and complex to approach as one subject. I’ve chosen to explore it one chapter at a time, allowing each collection to focus closely on the people, events, and stories within it.

Each chapter will begin with historical photographs, firsthand accounts, newspapers, museum collections, and period artifacts. The purpose is not simply to repeat familiar legends, but to understand the history beneath them and create paintings grounded in something genuine.

Here, I’ll share selected parts of that process: the facts that change my understanding of a subject, the people whose stories deserve renewed attention, and the discoveries that ultimately shape the paintings.

Not every discovery will become a painting, but every painting will begin with one.

Kim Randleas Image Credit

Studio photograph by Kim Randleas.