Originally from Ruthven, IA, Danielle Clouse Gast received her Associate of Arts Degree from Iowa Lakes Community College and her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Northwest Missouri State University with an emphasis in painting and ceramics. She works out of her home studio in Spirit Lake, IA, developing her abstract landscape style since 2008. Her paintings are in many corporate and private collections throughout the United States.

The midwest landscape has become the welcome constant in my daily life when driving place to place. But on many occasions, when the intention is to truly “see” the landscape (still often from the car window), beautiful, abstract moments can be found that are not that far removed from what is truly there. What do I look at? Shadows running down a ditch. Fence posts creating not only borders, but connections reaching up into a horizon. Corrugated metal siding on a building that has turned a warm rust orange. Organized grove lines and plant rows whose placed structure en mass pulls away from its individual organic shape. The same routes, the same landscapes - viewed at different times of day and different times of year - all become foundations for exploration on canvas. The inclusion of views from a Cessna 140 have allowed a new view of this landscape I thought I knew well. This new perspective on the area has opened up doors of new compositions, color possibilities, and most importantly, emphasized the style I usually employ in my paintings: organized, geometric lines and breakdown of the familiar landscape. Due to this focus, venturing from small town to small town usually lends itself more to research than travel - and midwest color is always there, explored.

Deconstructed Horizons explores the landscapes of Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota through a process of simplification, abstraction, and reconstruction. Inspired by mountain ranges, open prairies, winding rivers, and geothermal features, I break apart familiar landforms into geometric shapes, layered planes of color, and rhythmic compositions.

Rather than depicting a specific location, these paintings capture the experience of place—the vastness of the Western landscape, the shifting light, and the memories formed while moving through it. By deconstructing the horizon and rebuilding it through shape and color, I invite viewers to consider the landscape not only as a physical environment, but as a collection of impressions, emotions, and remembered moments.

The resulting works exist between representation and abstraction, offering a contemporary interpretation of the American West while honoring the enduring power of its landforms.

Available ARTWork

SOLD ARTWork