‘I Let the Land Speak to Me’

Landscape artist Scott Christensen doesn’t let a painting go out the door until he is convinced that it is as perfect as it can be. And he doesn’t rush the process.

“I’ve had some of my paintings for six to eight years,” he says. “I save them to see what the problems are.” He puts them away or turns them to the wall until he can look at them with a fresh eye and change anything that might need changing.

Christensen’s self-imposed standards are high—and he paints because he loves to do so, not to win awards. “I don’t paint to enter competitions,” he says. In fact, he rarely exhibits his paintings at large shows, except for the Prix de West, which he has participated in for about 25 years, preferring to show his work at galleries and museums.

Read the full article in the November/December 2025 issue.