All it took was a graduate assistantship in the Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy for John Cleaveland to realize his true artistic calling. "Before Italy, I was an abstract painter," John says. "It was in Italy that I realized landscapes were the best way to convey emotion." The featured piece Union Pacic - Sapphire Mountains, Bitterroot Valley, MT represents a common theme in John’s work, the juxtaposition of nature and man. Often it is a relic from the past that has succumbed to time and decay, here an old railcar sits silent amongst the mountains in the distance. A graduate of UGA with a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts, John has been painting realistic landscapes for over 25 years. "I'm fascinated by the light in a place, and I try to bring that into my painting. When light resonates from inside a painting instead of just sitting on top of the canvas, that's when a painting becomes real for me.”