Windows into the West began with questions. One of my earliest questions was why Western artists paint hollyhocks. It sounds like a simple question, but it led to many more. When did certain flowers become associated with the West? What did they mean to the people who planted, wore and decorated with them? Which photographers, artists, advertisers and craftspeople carried those flowers into the imagery of the West? I am not interested in using flowers simply because they ar

This Saturday, I wound my way down from the north to Pendleton. I’d never traveled that way before, and the road took me through old ranches and miles of wheat fields. What I saw more than anything was a lot of hard work. I couldn’t help but think about the people who took those same roads into Pendleton more than a hundred years ago, coming to town to show off what they could do. I went straight to the rodeo grounds and the Pendleton Round-Up & Happy Canyon Hall of Fame Muse

I’ve talked quite a bit about Windows into the West, but I haven’t officially introduced where I’m starting. The first chapter will explore early rodeo and Wild West shows. I chose this period because it gives me a strong place to begin. Cowboys and horses, competition, performers, saddles and silver, photographers, artists, craftsmen, famous names and people whose stories have nearly disappeared all intersect here. I’m also starting here because rodeo is already part of the

As I began developing Windows into the West, I started thinking more about how legends are made. Why do we remember Annie Oakley, for instance, and how did she become the person we know and love today? I believe our concept of these legendary figures is connected to the objects they carried, the images that shaped their public identity, and the artists and makers behind those images and objects. I’m approaching Windows into the West through four layers: the central figure, th

For about a decade, I’ve painted the subjects I saw around me, one painting at a time. Animals. Flowers. Portraits. I often wondered why my work seemed so disconnected. Other artists appeared to have a clear subject or recognizable path, while I kept moving between the people, animals, objects, and details of Western life. Now I realize I wasn’t moving without direction. I was exploring each element of the West individually. Over time, those subjects gave me a visual language

In 1784, Abel Buell published the first map of the newly independent United States compiled, printed, and published in America by an American.¹ It presents a young nation still concentrated along the Atlantic, with most of what we now call the American West lying beyond its edge. That absence is striking. It is not an empty land. Indigenous nations, established territories, trade routes, and generations of history already existed far beyond the boundaries shown. What is absen

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.