Fredrick Stephens draws inspiration for his fiery landscapes from the rural area he has lived in all his life, in central Utah. Drawing and painting have been a part of Stephens' life for as long as he can remember. As he says, "I spent most of my teenage summers working on a nearby dairy farm and herding cows. That environment, the way the light colors the land, enthralled me from minute to minute. The always changing landscape is the inspiration behind my paintings."

Stephens has studied under painters Ruthellen Paulen of New York, Randy Blackburn of Utah, and Robert Moore of Idaho, as well as his studies in fine art at The College of Eastern Utah. He admires the work of Wolf Kahn, the German-American painter whose own simple vividly-colored landscapes have made him one of America's most prominent and influential landscape painters. They both paint representational, abstract, expressionistic landscapes with foudroyant, unexpected color.

Using nature as the starting point, although pastoral and calming, there's edginess to Stephens' work that gives his landscapes a unique and contemporary look. That edginess intrigues collectors that have searched for something both familiar, yet cutting-edge. The work of a man who sees with sweeping bands of color, paints expressionism with a sharp palette, and approaches his oils with an abstract eye while grounded in tradition-this combination yields a strong, independent style that Stephens can call his own.

El Prado by the Creek is proud to represent this exciting artist who Southwest Art selected as one of the 21 artist under 30 to watch in 2007.