Kim Randleas’ early childhood days were often spent drawing with found charcoal pieces or painting landscapes with watercolors. Family outings were regularly in the mountains surrounding her hometown, where stories of early Native People were told. Lazy Sunday afternoons consisted of picnics and slow hikes; taking in the high desert views, but always keeping a lookout for obsidian chips indicating the location of an early Native’s flint knapping work.

Her childhood home offered further inspiration from a now well-worn coffee table book “Techniques of the Artists of the American West”, which featured twenty-one classic paintings of the American West. It included paintings by Frederic Remington, Joseph Henry Sharp, N.C. Wyeth, William Robinson Leigh, and Grace Hudson, among others, offering her first artistic influences.

After a successful entrepreneurial career she started oil painting in 2015 and began her artistic career in 2016 when, on a whim, she entered a museum exhibition, was accepted, and took home the “People’s Choice” Award.

She lives and creates in her home studio outside Canyon City, Oregon enjoying the wildlife, extensive views, and solitude of her home nestled at the base of Canyon Mountain.