If you ask Phil Epp how he developed the style that has come to define his sky-filled Southwestern
landscapes, he’ll shrug and admit that it’s not something he can easily explain—nor something he fully understands himself.

It started with his childhood love of cowboy art, horses, and the view from his bedroom window in his childhood home in Nebraska. Then it merged with painters he was introduced to in college—from
Picasso to Jackson Pollock—and to the work of color field painters, like Mark Rothko, who used large areas of unbroken, flat colors on their canvases.

Read the full article in the September/October 2021 issue.

The Sign

Acrylic
30” by 40”

“I like to occasionally hint at symbolism. I’m not sure what it means, but I enjoy looking at it.”

Prairie Fire

Acrylic
30” by 40”

“I live on the edge of the Flint Hills, where spring burns help the grass and limit woody invaders. I have encountered numerous scenes of horses running the smoke.”