WHITEFISH – Colt Idol has a bit of a problem with his oil paintings: he can barely keep up with the voracious consumer demand for them.
Most Flathead Valley residents are probably familiar with Colt through his athletic achievements at Whitefish High School, but they will likely get comfortable with his new role as a promising, young artist.
After graduating from high school in 2009, he went to Montana State University to play basketball, but tore his ACL a few weeks after getting there. Colt took the time to heal, but five-and-a-half months later, he sustained another injury that required surgery. He transferred to Carroll College in Helena, where he was plagued by further injury.
He stayed at Carroll for a semester and, during his down time, his father, Dick Idol, encouraged him to paint.
“I’d paint in my dorm room, but nothing much,” Colt said.
Leaving Carroll after a semester, he painted with his dad in his dad’s studio outside of Whitefish for about eight months, expecting to go back to Bozeman to pick up where he left off in higher education.
While painting with his dad – one of the most well-known western painters in the country – Colt developed his style and technique.
“He’s come up with a look and identity all his own,” Dick said of his son.
Colt did end up going back to MSU to study art, but said it didn’t seem like the right course for him when his paintings began selling well in Whitefish galleries.
So he returned home, and the family decided it would open the Dick Idol Signature Gallery in Whitefish. The family members gutted the building on Central Avenue and redid the floors, walls and ceiling. It was a tough project, everyone agreed, but worthwhile.
The new gallery is an interesting fit for the family. Colt, 21, and Dick hang their paintings there, 24-year-old Cody Idol uses his business background and Dick’s wife, Toni Rae Idol, is the co-owner and works in the gallery during the day.
Dick noted that he and his wife worked together to create the gallery’s interior atmosphere, using his artistic talent and her abilities as an interior designer.
Both Idols like to use warm colors in their art, and the subject matter often includes western scenes, such as landscapes, teepees, cabins, animals and more. Dick said he strays outside of his normal range from time to time, noting a set of giraffe paintings hanging in the gallery.
But diversity is the key to catering to a vast range of clientele. Dick said he likes to watch how people are pulled in by certain styles hanging in the gallery, which range from traditional to contemporary.
The gallery hosts the work of local and national artists, Dick said, with paintings from Darcie Peet, David Mayer and more. Some of the pieces can hit five-digit price ranges, but there are also small, affordable pieces available as well.
Part of the goal is to have high-quality work at the most affordable prices, Dick said. There will also be a lot of “unusual things” in the gallery, he said, noting such pieces as a mastodon tusk and the expected arrival of a birch-bark canoe.
And since there is so much space in the gallery, the Idols also plan on hosting functions like wine-tastings, preview parties and live music.
“Our goal is to make this very socially integrated with western Montana,” Dick said.
Toni Rae said the approach has been working since the June opening. On its opening night, which coincided with June’s Whitefish Gallery Nights, hundreds of people visited the gallery.
“The gallery itself has been so well-received in the community,” Toni Rae said.
So has Colt’s work. Though he’s only been painting full time for two years, the gallery has had a tough time keeping his pieces in stock. Cody said he sold 12 of the paintings in the previous week alone.
“It’s thrilling, it really is,” Toni Rae said.
Colt said he planned to complete nine paintings before the July Gallery Nights celebration. His small paintings are the most popular, and range from $400 to $800. The next 48 hours were going to be busy for him, but he is the first to admit that it’s a nice problem to have.
And Dick, being the artist he is, painted a silver lining around Colt’s history of injuries in college athletics.
“As bad as it seemed at the time, that’s really the key that allowed him to go into art,” Dick said.
The Dick Idol Signature Gallery is located at 238 Central Ave. in Whitefish.