Tom Howard has worked as an artist for over 20 years. The landscape has been the dominant theme in his work. It never ceases to provide inspiration and satisfaction in the search for those things that bring a feeling of fulfillment to his life. He looks to the broad valleys, hills and mountain ranges that make up the Great Basin of the West, and focuses more particularly to the northwest part of Box Elder County in northern Utah and parts of southern Idaho. These places of his childhood have left an indelible impression on his memory. It is a place of hills lined with junipers, pinion pine, sagebrush, and distant high mountain peaks. It is an austere landscape, yet strangely beautiful and peaceful. It is a very open land relatively devoid of human pollution and clutter. Tom has always believed that there is a strong and natural human connection to the earth. “I feel that while it is a connection that exists on a level far from our consciousness there are moments when that connection is reaffirmed within us,” he says. “For me it occurs when I am in the presence of a landscape open and devoid of human intrusion and clutter, where feelings can grow and manifest unrestrained. My hope is that my paintings are able to tap into a sense of this connection and the beauty that I find in these remote and distant landscapes.”