Josef Petriska painting inspiration came from natural, clean scenery, untouched by modern civilization. His respect and love of natural landscapes carried with him from his childhood, growing up in a story-tale land, known as Transylvania. Upon his arrival in Canada, he spent a lot of his time working in the interior of British Columbia, surrounded by the majestic Rocky Mountains, dense forests, emerald lakes and valleys. When he moved to Ontario in 1969, he was yet again taken by the rich, Boreal forest and lakes of Northern Ontario. His collection of landscape and nature paintings helped him in his environmental crusade, by portraying the splendid beauty that we all stand to loose, if we don't change our attitude toward our use and misuse of our land, soil, air and water.