Drawing has always been integral to the young Coleman’s art. “The only way to depict a subject with any authority is to thoroughly study that subject at length.” A recently completed painting of a Great Horned Owl, is a result of several instances from his youth, times when he went with a friend of the family observing owls and hawks…Coleman’s art seems to be an outcropping of his fervent interest in natural history and his intimacy with the outdoors and the rugged Utah countryside.

A voracious reader (given the slightest provocation, he segues into a historical dissertation), Coleman draws on his historical knowledge of history to replicate Blackfoot camps and villages in his paintings. Native American Artifacts that his father and he own provide additional historical accuracy.

According to Altermann, “Coleman has the historical feel, and he is able to create a contemporary innovative look in his art. I believe his talent and training, and of course the exposure to his father’s work, have influenced him. I feel that in time, with the fundamental he has in place and the training he has, his future looks bright.”

The lighting in his Western and Native American scenes is what Coleman sees from his home during different times of the day. “Light adds dimension, which can allow you to see further back into a painting,” Coleman says. “Often it’s that last ray of light in the evening that make a painting come to life.”

Coleman’s artistic influences include Bruno Liljefors, Wilhelm Kuhnert, Carl Rungius, Frank Tenney Johnson, Ray Harris-Ching, Thomas Moran, Eanger Irving Couse, to name a few…Making the acquaintance of a local taxidermist (who does almost all of the work for Cabela’s), he says, has helped to authenticate his renderings of the birds. Most of Coleman’s ornithological work depict nest, eggs and chicks in their respective habitats…He has since been invited to show his work in the Leigh Yawkey Birds in Art at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. Museum Collections include the Bennington Center for the Arts in Vermont, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin.

Coleman continues to strive to paint better and better paintings, constantly grooming each painting so the next one is always better than the last one.

(Excerpt from 2004,Wildlife Art Magazing)