Terry Lee: An artist's eye

COEUR d'ALENE - For a man who has an international reputation as a wildlife artist, and has sold his work around the world, Terry Lee offers a short, simple description of himself.

"I'm just doing my job and having a lot of fun doing it," he said. "It's a cool job."

Having just returned from a Wednesday round of golf, Lee jokes that he shot a round of two over - for every hole.

"Golf is a nice walk. It's the little white ball that ruins it," he said, laughing.

Golf may not be his field of excellence, but painting and bronze sculptures certainly are.

Since he dedicated himself full time to his art about 15 years ago, the Coeur d'Alene native and 1967 CHS grad has sold thousands of paintings and numerous bronze sculptures.

His paintings of moose, mountains, meadows and more are marked by vibrant, rich, bold colors.

Many are familiar with the life-sized bronze grizzly that stood downtown for months, and the bigger-than-life-sized moose - 10 1/2 feet tall, 13 feet long, 3,000 pounds - that for years stood in front of his longtime studio at Ramsey and Appleway.

The moose, by the way, is now on display at a gallery in Priest Lake.

"It's only $130,000 and it'd look good in your front yard," Lee said, smiling.

Sitting in his cozy studio at 214 Coeur d'Alene Ave., he glances across the room at an easel, on which rests a painting in progress of a grizzly bear.

"That easel has probably created over a million and half to 2 million dollars worth of art work in the last 15 years," Lee said. "I put some time in. I work hard at it."

It shows.

•••

How is the art world treating you these days?

It's interesting, to say the least. I'm in seven galleries currently and this is the slowest period that I've ever had with those galleries. Since January, it's just been very slow. Buyers are not as spontaneous as they used to be. Now, they look at a painting, they want to consider it longer and think about it more, then they don't buy. There's still a lot of money out there, there's still a lot of collectors. They want work, but they're being very particular about it and they're taking their time. They're not doing it on the spur of the moment.

Anything you're doing differently as a result of that?

Moving a little bit more toward the print market. I'm in a gallery in Lake Tahoe and they've been moving a number of prints. Instead of buying a $15,000 or $20,000 painting, they can buy a print for $1,500 to $3,000.

The gallery I'm in in Jackson Hole is moving my bronzes, more so than they are paintings. But the bronzes are $6,000 and down to $3,500, so the price break is under $10,000.

You've been at your art career 15 years. How did you get started?

I owned a sporting goods store in Coeur d'Alene. It was called Lee's Outdoor Outfitter, I owned that with my brother and sister in the 1970s and '80s. We liquidated that business in '86 and I went through a divorce and I moved to San Diego. I wanted to go where the sun shines. While I was down there I was in the mortgage business for a while and the real estate business. I wasn't happy in either one and it just kept pulling me back to the art. But I never really believed I could make a living at it. It was only a hobby. After about six years down there and doing my art a little bit more at a time, I realized it wasn't an interest, it was a passion. And I decided to do it. I moved back to Coeur d'Alene in '94 and I went at it full time and it just took off and I started to build the business from there. The galleries picked them up and everything started to really roll.

Did operating the sporting goods store help your art career?

I think it's been great for me as an artist. People come in the store every day looking for something to buy and I'm there to help them do it. So, that's helped me market my artwork. I feel like I have to have the door open. I've got a retail mentality and that is I've got to be open and people can come in. This is a working studio. I don't sell here very often, I paint and ship it. There is something here on the wall once and a while, but not all the time. I don't mind people coming in. They have an opportunity to walk in the door and see where it happens. They can smell the paint, look at the easel and the palate and see what it's all about. It's kind of fun for people, and I enjoy having people come in and appreciate the work.

Were you surprised at your success?

Yeah, kind of. I had a unique style. Very colorful, kind of a portrait animal that was unique at the time. Not very many people were doing it, so I created kind of a new technique, a new style, basically, and it became popular. I got into good galleries in Jackson Hole and Vail, Colo., and they started to move the work really well for people who had the money.

So, yeah, it surprised me. It's always coming from a retail background, and an interest in manufacturing a product and selling it. I realized even though the artwork is very intuitive and very different than manufacturing, it still is about making a product and then trying to sell it. It's about marketing, it's about hustle, and I work hard at it. It's a seven-day-a-week thing where I'm constantly thinking about it and doing it. I travel a lot. Being a wildlife artist, the hardest thing is the material, so I've been to Africa two times, I've been to Italy for landscape painting, I've been over twice to Spain and Paris. I frequent the national parks. I just got back from a trip to Yellowstone where I shot a lot of reference material. I shot a lot of trees and ponds and downed logs and snags, things that I can put into a painting.

I'll use a photograph and paint from that. Basically, just to get the general concept of what I want and then I just go crazy with the color.

How would you describe your work?

I've been called kind of an impressionist.

There was a gallery that called me a fauvist. It means wild beast. That was generated back in the time of Matisse and van Gogh. They kind of were the fathers of the fauvist movement. They were claimed to be the wild beasts, which is bold color. So that's pretty much what I've pushed toward. What feels good to me is the bold color.

You are the man who created the Mudgy and Millie sculpture. How did that come about?

Susan Nipp, the author of the book, came to me and told me what her concept was. Her illustrator sent me drawings of the moose and I sculpted from the drawings.

How does that rank in your career?

It's kind of funny to be known so well for Mudgy. He's a cartoon. You want to be taken seriously. But when I see people climbing all over it and having their picture taken with it, that's really cool. That's the best.

When did you know you were a good artist and could make a living at it?

I never knew I was good and I still don't believe I'm good. But I remember having an interest in it. I'd go to the office supply store as a kid. I liked the feel of the paper and the way that a pen felt on the paper, so that was intriguing to me. When I saw artwork, drawings, sketches, I used to think, 'That'd be so great to be able to do that.' But I never, ever believed I'd be an artist. That just never crossed my mind at all. After having gone through a divorce and having been in San Diego and having been around artwork, I realized it was a passion and something I had to pursue, so I came back and started working at it really hard.

At what point did you say, 'I can do this?'

As soon as I sold a painting and started to sell on a consistent basis I could claim I was an artist, as soon as I claimed it, 'Yes, I am an artist,' it seemed to flow even better.

What's the most satisfying part of what you do?

I have all my own control. I can play golf and come back here at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and work until midnight. I can set my own hours. The other part of it is, I love to do what I do. It just feels great to put paint on canvas and create something. If I get tired of painting I'll sculpt and if I get tired of both of them, I'll go take pictures or I'll pick up a portable easel and I'll paint outside. In Jackson Hole, I painted two days down there. It doesn't get any better than that, to do what you want to do when you want to do it. Like I say, it's a 24/7 job. I eat, drink and sleep it. It's always on my mind. It's always trying to get better, it's always trying to create the next best thing.

What's down the road for you?

A lot of people have copied my style in the last few years so I feel like I need to reinvent myself and try something a little different.

Definitely I will paint, but I will probably paint different subjects. I'm going to be more into landscapes. In August, I'm going down into California and paint in the Sierras for a while. Those are the things I want to do, travel more and paint.

Do you ever think you'll ever leave Coeur d'Alene?

I was born here. I'm a native. I can't leave Coeur d'Alene. It's a jewel. It has its crummy winters and its cloudy days, but I get more work done when it's raining outside. It keeps me in the studio working. But it's great town.

When you're working on a painting, how do you know when you're done?

Some say it takes two people to do a painting, one to do the painting and the other to tell you when to stop. You can overwork it, and I've done that. But in oil painting, you can fix it. There's no mistakes. I can go over the top of what I've done, I can go back into it again.

One time, I went up to the painting and I picked up the brush and looked where I could do something, and I couldn't find it. I said, 'Well, it must be done.'

I had a painting up here a couple weeks ago and my granddaughter was here, she's 2 years old. The bottom corner of the painting was undone, it was white. She said, 'I want to watch grandpa painting.' She sat on the chair and she folded her arms and she watched me paint. Pretty soon, I covered up that white, and as soon as I covered it up she said, 'OK, it's done now grandpa.'

As soon as you cover up all the white, it must be done.