Seth Mach sits in his backyard near Reed High School, looks over the rolling hills and begins to paint.

The 20-year-old University of Nevada, Reno student peppered his paintings across the artist’s wall at the Spanish Springs Library this month where they will remain through Saturday.

Some of his acrylic paintings on wood have a sense of the surreal while others paint a picture of the dusty backyard landscape from which Mach draws most of his inspiration.

“It’s just rolling fields and there are still some cows out there,” Mach said. “It is one of my favorite places in town.”

Mach’s career began in the school playground and grew into a budding business of album artwork and charity paintings.

“It definitely started in elementary school,” Mach said of his obsession with art. “Other kids would be playing on the playground and I just wanted to draw. I was drawing in the dirt when other kids were playing.”

At the age of 12 Mach remembers looking out over a cove in North Carolina. A painting of a silhouetted lighthouse is the record of Mach’s family vacation and the first piece of artwork he created.

“I loved the sky in the background,” Mach said. “The lighthouse is done in dull reds and blues and tans. It was my first piece that I really liked.”

The lighthouse now sits in a dusty storage box with many of Mach’s other early works. He has moved on to different projects.

His next stroke will be on album artwork for a friend’s local Christian band, Voice of the Martyr. Right now, Mach is examining a friend’s photos from Africa, hoping to create his own surreal renderings of the photos.

“I have a friend who is a missionary in Africa,” Mach said. “He gets African art, sells it, then he takes the money and puts it back into the orphanage in Kenya where he works.”

Mach said he hopes to sell some of his renderings for the same cause, but Mach’s paintings of burgundy berries and lonely farmhouses that hang on the wall at the Spanish Springs Library are not for sale.

“We try to give the community a place where they can share their culture,” said Corinne Dickman, Spanish Springs Library branch manager. “But money can’t change hands here.”

The library features a different local artist monthly on the community art display wall. Artwork must be in harmony with the library’s list of standards and the artist must provide two work samples before their work will be considered for display.

“I actively search for places to put up work,” Mach said. The opportunity for this particular showcase came through a friend of Mach’s who works at the library.

Gwen Wagner wandered over to Mach’s artwork on Wednesday with her two boys, Casey and Jager.

“I like this one because it is unique,” Wagner said, pointing to a bright blue painting of a fisherman casting his line into a sea of small people. “Who would think of that? It’s creative.”

Mach’s inspiration comes from his faith and his favorite artists.

“I do a lot of my paintings based on my faith,” Mach said. “I am definitely a Christian.”

The painting of dark figures dancing just below the fisherman’s hook was titled “Fishers of Men” — a nod to the Bible passage.

Mach’s art teeters between tastes.

“I kind of go back and forth,” Mach said. “On one hand I love to do the surrealism and modern look. On the other hand I love rural and old-looking painting. I am still solidifying my style.”

Beyond his backyard, Mach gets his inspiration from some of his favorite artists: Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Blackshear and Ron DiCianni.

“I like the feeling of waylessness that he portrays,” Mach said of Wyeth. “He does s lot of rural weathered-looking things.”