Robert Nicolais is a Los Angeles-based architect who has always enjoyed sketching and painting, with a particular affinity for landscapes.

Artist Statement: I have a small place in northern New Mexico, and when I am there, I like to roam around sketching and doing watercolors. Some of these I turn into oil paintings. This is a scene of hills near Abiquiu, New Mexico, on Ghost Ranch. The hills there have an incredible variety of color and shape. As an architect, I do like lines and I like to focus on linear patterning rather than spatial representation.