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.