Fire Lights Way To Success

A simple campfire, with glowing embers and flickering flames, ignited Stephen Lyman’s artistic career.

The realistic way he painted the fire and light on canvas in 1989 has turned him into one of the nation’s top three sellers of fine art prints.

Lyman, 38, does it all from his secluded home and studio off a gravel road northeast of Sandpoint.

“The campfires really started me out. They seem to have a big impact on the viewer,” said the bearded artist who still drives a beat-up pickup truck.

“They mean so much to so many different people, and it’s challenging to paint a source of light.”

Lyman started as a commercial illustrator in L.A., but tired of city life. Eight years ago he discovered Sandpoint, calling it an idyllic place to settle down.

The trade-off? It’s not the most ideal place to try to market art.

“If you want to be successful locally, open a gravel pit, don’t be an artist,” Lyman joked.

“Original-art buyers are still in the big cities, and places like Aspen,” he said. “But Sandpoint is on its way.”

After he moved to Idaho, it took Lyman two years to perfect his technique of illuminating wilderness scenes with painted fire, sun or moonlight.

All of Lyman’s paintings stem from personal experience.

“I’m an adventurer, an explorer and an artist. Here I have mountains, lakes, animals and a scarcity of people. I’m allowed to be creative here,” he said. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo