I can't remember when I wasn't drawing (mostly horses) when I was a child. It was hard to keep me inside the house. We had a cattle ranch in the Big Hole Valley of southwestern Montana, and it was my universe to be explored on the back of my pinto horse, Pinky. Neighbors were not in sight, so my view across the valley was unobstructed. The light had a shimmering, vibrating quality there, which affected all of the greens of the hayfields and became double-fold when irrigation water was turned out in the spring to flood the fields. This special place has had a profound effect on how I view the world and why I feel so strongly about painting the noble qualities of the landscape.

About 1990 I picked up a small set of pastels that my sister had given to me and did a small still life. My interest in this medium grew with every painting. The immediacy and color-layering characteristics of pastel appeal to me as well as textural effects I can get by using different edges of the pastel piece. I think that the shimmering, jewel-like qualities of layered pastel tie in with my earlier experiences, and it is one of the most important reasons that I like this medium. I like using oil paint as well, for a different way to express landscape and will choose one or the other depending on the aspects of the scene and how I think they could be best expressed. Color relationships are a main consideration in my paintings. I spend much of my time outdoors sketching and making small paintings that I can consider for larger pieces done in the studio at a later time. This way, color, proportion and values can be noted correctly as well as building a visual memory and experience with the place - much more accurate than the use of a photograph alone.

I try to capture an essence of place by simplifying forms and directing the viewer into the painting through composition, values and color. It is also important that the viewer feels what I felt when I was there, my purpose and what single idea attracted me to the scene. I believe that we need paintings of the open landscape in our culture. They can provide a window, a sense of tranquility and a means to connect us to the natural places that may be too far away to experience often.   - Colleen K. Howe