Howell has earned the reputation of being one of the leading landscape painters in the West. He lives in a 150-year-old adobe home and studio that he renovated in Mogote, Colorado, a village more than a town just four miles North of the New Mexico State line at the mouth of Conejos Canyon in the southern San Juan Mountains. The property was the town's original general store, with walls two feet thick, viga ceilings, and pine wood floors.  He converted the largest room into his studio, installing a wall easel, fixing up the fireplace, and complementing the window's northern light and adding halogen lights (the same used in the galleries he shows in, to give him a better idea of how his paintings will look once they're up for viewing).

He spends most of his work time outdoors, painting en plein air for weeks at a time, even in winter, then painting his large paintings from these studies in the studio.

"Plein air paintings have a raw honesty that one is not able to get from working from a photograph in the studio."

The larger paintings tend to have more layers and are more complex; however, Howell's main goal is to have these paintings give the feeling or create the emotion he was able to capture in nature using the studies as a reference.

"In one hour I can be in Abiquiu or Taos or high up in the San Juans or Sangre de Cristos, over on the Rio Grande, the area is so rich in diversity of subject matter".

The scenic Cumbres & Toltec scenic train runs from Antonito (about five miles east of Mogote) to Chama, New Mexico.  Visitors from around the world come to ride the train and view the incredible landscape of the Conejos Canyon and beyond.

Howell's favorite paintings are of everyday scenes. Nature is fairly gray, so when you add color, the gray tones actually allow those colors to sing.

"If you paint the entire landscape with singing color, it is difficult to appreciate the the beauty of the more subtle voices you want to hear"

Howell's intent is to take everyday scene and paint it so well that it stirs a memory or creates a mood.  It is these settings that get his attention and become paintings. 

Howell's collectors praise his ability to capture the mood of a place and he often hears that his work evokes an emotional response. They are immediately taken by the beauty of his landscapes.  Howell conveys a sense of confidence in his painting technique and a definite love of the Rocky Mountain West.  His large paintings (48 by 60 inches and larger) make a grand statement that continue to draw viewers back again and again.

"No matter how we progress as painters, we continue to strive to make each painting better than the last," Howell reflects.  "Complete mastery of painting continually eludes us, that is what makes painting so wonderful:  that constant challenge to get one great painting."

Howell's plein air paintings vary up to 18 by 24 inches.  Those sketches he likes best later become transformed into larger oil paintings back in the studio.  By the Spring of 2011, he will release a 140-page book on his direct approach to plein air painting titled Chasing Shadows.

Howell has earned a reputation of being one of the best landscape painters in the West.  Aside from having over 50 shows in leading galleries, including a number of one-man shows, Howell has garnered the top awards presented by the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionist Society, and Salon International's International Museum of Contemporary Masters.

Founder of Organization

2010, Founder of Art for Endangered Landscapes, in partnership with The Nature Conservanc Its mission is to preserve our vanishing landscapes through the work of America's most talented artists, including painters, sculptors, photographers, videographers, and others.