Elliot's focus is the landscape and its rich store of ideas and inspiration. He is compelled to work from the trees, skies, lakes, and streams in their endless variations. He doesn't try to recreate nature (even Monet said he never got it right) or attempt storytelling. Instead, his works are simplifications and exaggerations of nature. There was a time when he felt the tyranny of the landscape; that is, he felt limited by making pictures of a place. Now, instead of making pictures, he is free to make paintings—art that comes from nature but is far more reliant on the strategies of making good art objects.