By creating an alternative view to traditional landscape painting, my re-conceived landscapes of the American West and the coast of California, simultaneously real and surreal, invite the viewer to experience our surroundings with a new perspective and to lose oneself in an environment of nature enhanced and unexpected. Through the interplay of light and space, unorthodox colors, patterns and movement, a symbolic narrative with a mystical presence arises. Primal emotions, and instinctive, intuitive forces from within the human psyche are accessed through awareness of our natural world . Derived from, but not documentations of specific places, these views are “re-imaginings”. The viewer is led to wonder where these landscapes exist – with a longing to visit, and at the same time search in their own subconscious to find a personal location. Created by tapping into a huge visual reservoir of memories , I also utilize field notes, photos, and thumbnail sketches. A third generation Californian, I spent a large part of my childhood on a 15,000 acre coastal cattle ranch- one of the original Spanish Land Grant ranchos – near Santa Barbara. My fondest memories, that inform my work today, are roaming alone on horseback for hours and hours, up and down the canyons, seeing the land go on forever from the ridgetops, and on the beach, observing the natural world with the innocent imagination of childhood.