Colin C. Coots (American, 1944-) was raised on a farm in Western New York State. After attending public schools he studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio, graduating in 1968 with a BFA in Sculpture.
After serving one year as a VISTA in an Alaskan Eskimo village, Colin spent many years teaching art, working as farm laborer, tree surgeon and museum preparator, all while working independently on painting and sculpture.
Since leaving the Margaret Woodbury Stong Museum in Rochester, NY in 1986, Colin has supported himself primarily by painting, and doing educational art projects, classes and demonstrations in schools and colleges. He has had several one-man shows and his paintings are in many private collection in the US and abroad.
The horses, dogs and landscapes that capture Colin Coot’s interest are presented to us in his spontaneous and fresh style. His knowledge of these subjects is evident. His paintings depict places with people and atmospheres he knows intimately.
Artist’s Statement– 2000
“My neighbor, old Finn McCall, had a black dog. One warm summer day the dog killed some sheep. That afternoon I went over… Finn took me by the arm to a freshly dug hole in the lawn. At the bottom in the dirt was Blackie, blood splattered, one eye looking up. Finn was drunk… I was nine years old.
I paint simple paintings: a dog, a horse, a mountain. I work fast. Like riding a bicycle, I don’t think about it. I don’t work very large. The miracle is to compress time and space. Details don’t interest me. Illusion is the magic that lets us dance.”
