“I’ve been doing artwork my whole life,” Colt Idol relates. “It was a mild interest because my greatest passion was athletics. I didn’t see a future in athletics and left school to spend a year working in my dad’s studio. He’s a sculptor and began the Dick Idol brand of furniture and home furnishings. We went into painting together. It was one of my biggest learning periods for targeted experimentation. Trying to discover your style is like trying to discover a new color. It’s hard to see something that isn’t there yet. You have to create avenues to stumble on new effects.”
Golden Waters, oil on canvas, 36 x 72 in.
Idol has mastered the reciprocal effects of light and color and often chooses to depict them in difficult conditions. Often there is a brightly backlit scene as in Autumn Trailblazer where the low sunlight makes the fall foliage glow and outlines the forms of the trapper and his horses.
Familiar Times, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.
In Morning Grind, he paints what he has learned about light and color. “In backlighting,” he explains, “if you really want maximum punch you almost have to squint your eyes. I’m trying to get some of those effects in a painting. If you photograph the scene, all the dark values get washed out and you lose information and interest. I take photos of a sunset that takes your breath away but I know the essence will be lost. I takes notes about that inspirational moment about what the colors look like and what I could use to create that effect. In the studio I paint what it felt like and as I remember it.”
Autumn Trailblazer, oil on canvas, 22 x 16 in.
Idol continues, “The landscape painter James Reynolds advised that you want to say what your trying to say with the fewest brushstrokes possible. In the foreground of Morning Grind there are fine grasses which are easier to paint than massing an area with color. In that light you wouldn’t see the detail, so I’ve filled it with areas of light and shadow that suggest the green of the grasses and the shadows of the cattle.”
When addressing his teepee paintings, the artist reflects on the real object and the exercise that helped him paint it. “My wife and I set up a teepee in our backyard and painted the exterior with designs adapted from Plains tribes. I love the way the light drapes around the teepee,” he says. “I did a workshop once where we painted a cue ball. It was an exercise in reflected light. The only white is where the direct light hits the ball. The rest is the color of its surroundings. The color on the teepee is the result of the environment. So, I can’t paint the color of the teepee without knowing what the sky is going to be.”
Morning Grind, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in.
“My artistic endeavors are inspired by the history that’s right behind us, and the cultures of our ancestors that lived on the very land we live today,” he adds. “My artistic expression lies in highlighting a timeless, symbolic and ambient West of old, to this new daring and vibrant era in which we live today.” —
Coeur d’Alene Galleries 213 Sherman Avenue » Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 » (208) 667-7732 » www.cdagalleries.com
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