The influence of his training in illustration is evident in a great deal of the artist's work. There is an indication of packing, of making camp, or breaking camp. . . of cowboys at first light preparing to ride out, or performing their often lonely chores, or standing around a campfire as the coffee water boils. The landscape predominates, but there is almost always a suggestion of man's relationship to the environment.

'In my Cariboo paintings, it is the vastness of the country that appeals to me - the sweeping distance, the subtle colour of sagebrush and hill, the mood of a moonlight night with its almost unbelievable brilliance and stillness... with the welcoming light in a cabin window to soften the loneliness...' says Ewart of the country he depicts so well.

When viewing the artist's depictions of the Cariboo as unpeopled landscapes, it is observed by many who view them that they seem "lonely". This is why the paintings of cabins with lights in windows and riders on horseback, the "coming home" and the round-ups, were, in Ewart's lifetime, more popular at shows and exhibitions. It had even been said that, if a painting didn't have a cabin or a cowboy, a red coat or a light in the window, then it "wasn't a Ewart".

The artist devoted his skills willingly to the subjects that people sought and appreciated. He loved the old buildings, the romance or the open range and the disappearing lifestyle of the early cowboys of the Old West. He was thankful that he was able to earn a living doing what he loved to do, in large part due to the success of these subjects. Sometimes he did wish that more of the public would expand their perceptions and see more of what he saw in nature, apart from what were becoming his "signature" subjects. Equally, perhaps more, he was at home in the landscapes that reflected the natural qualities of sagebrush, rolling hills, mountains and varying moods of morning and evening, sunsets, first light, winter snow, as he had observed them. He felt that an unpeopled painting allows the viewer to participate in it, to imagine himself or herself as the rider, the observer, and the fortunate, singular participant in that moment in time.