Ten years ago, Coila Evans took the bold leap to dedicate herself to art full-time. Now, her first professional solo exhibition at Cassens Fine Art marks a pivotal moment in a journey full of twists and turns, each shaping her into the artist and storyteller she is today.

Every chapter of her life, no matter how far it veered from art, ultimately led her back, enriching the work that now defines her career.

A Creative Calling from Rural Texas

Coila’s love for art began early, nurtured by the wide, open landscapes of rural Texas. From her first memories, she was drawn to the power of storytelling through visual expression. Growing up on a one-acre plot outside of Dallas, surrounded by a creek, a horse barn, and a pond, her childhood was steeped in the simplicity of nature and the vibrant hues of the Texas sky.

“I always knew I wanted to create,” Coila reflects. “Even when I wasn’t painting, art was always part of my life. It lived in my imagination, waiting for the right time.”

Her earliest memory of creating art involves drawing scenes on slick-coated white plates as a young girl. One of these featured a rainbow, little clouds, and a few birds. After finishing the drawings, she placed them by the road in hopes someone would buy them for 25 cents. But no one came by. A week later, she set up a lemonade stand - and a few people stopped by. “I should’ve sold lemonade with my art,” she recalls, smiling. This marked both her earliest artistic memory and the birth of her entrepreneurial spirit.

The Winding Path to Art

Though Coila took a few art classes in high school and was often seen with a sketchbook in hand, her life after school led her down different roads. She worked various jobs, experienced personal losses, and at times, her career seemed far removed from art. Yet every experience contributed to the artist she is today. Each chapter added layers to her understanding of the world, of people, and of herself - lessons she unknowingly carried into her art.

“There were times I thought, ‘I’m too far from art. This isn’t what I’m meant to be doing,’” Coila reflects. “But every experience I had, even the ones that felt distant from my passion, brought me closer to my work today.”

The Call of the West

As life unfolded, Coila found herself drawn to Montana - a place that had always called to her. Though she had grown up in Texas, her mother was originally from Montana, and Coila spent summers visiting the state as a child. Even as a child, she felt Montana tugging at her heart.

“There’s something about Montana that feels like it was waiting for me,” she says. “It’s vast and untamed, but it has a stillness I hadn’t found anywhere else. The land here speaks to you if you’re willing to listen.”

While on a visit to see her grandmother, she was introduced to her husband, Troy Evans, a 5th generation native Montanan woodworker, who builds sculptural furniture. “After just three dates, I knew he was the one,” she said with an endearing smile. She sold, donated, gave away, and shipped everything else she owned to Roundup, MT. The following year after moving to Roundup, they were married at his family’s place under the mature cottonwood trees next to the old highway.

The Box W is full of history, and serves as her main wellspring of inspiration today. It was Troy that encouraged her to pick up the paintbrush again. Even with little experience, he went so far to secure her a commission for a restaurant in Bozeman. More than a decade later, her large pieces still hang there. But in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when work was scarce, she turned to entrepreneurship, starting a massage therapy business instead of painting.

“I didn’t paint like I should have, and I didn’t paint like I could have,” she admits. “But that business allowed me to connect with the community and eventually buy my studio.”

A Life-Changing Plot Twist

Her studio first served as her massage therapy practice, where she also showcased other artists’ and artisans’ work. Her easel and supplies slowly began taking up more space at home until she set up a small painting area at the studio.

In December 2014, everything changed. As Coila prepared for a Christmas event, she learned about a two-week workshop in New York through the Montana Arts Council. “I told myself, if you’re ever going to be an artist - if you’re ever going to do this - you have to know what it’s like to paint every day,” she recalls.

With two months to figure out how to make the workshop happen, Coila prayed for “all the green lights.” She painted 50 paintings in 50 days, selling them on Facebook to raise money, and applied for a grant from the Montana Arts Council.

All her hard work paid off, and those two weeks in New York changed everything.

A Full-Circle Moment

Now, nearly a decade later, Coila is preparing for her first solo exhibition, “Stories of the West”, at Cassens Fine Art. This moment feels like a poetic full-circle milestone in her artistic journey.

“I could have gotten here faster, but this feels true to who I am,” Coila reflects. “For a long time, I struggled with the idea that art was selfish. But I’ve come to realize I’m helping people with my art too. It gives them a break from the world.”

“Stories of the West”

One of the featured pieces in the exhibition is Stay with Me, a painting of a group of horses that took Coila two and a half years to complete. Her aim was to humanize the horses and draw parallels between their relationships and ours. “If you’re within four feet of a horse, they can hear your heartbeat,” she explains. “They know your intention before you even get close. And, like humans, they can sometimes bicker. But if one leaves after a scuffle, the others say, ‘Wait, where are you going? Stay with me.’”

Another series in the exhibition features Harrison’s Yellow, a fragrant rose brought to the West by Pioneers on the Oregon Trail. “I read that women sewed the cuttings into the hems of their skirts so the dew would keep them fresh,” Coila explains. “I fell in love with these roses during the pandemic because they still exist today, carried across generations just like the people who brought them here.”

Alongside these works are portraits of strong women and men of character, embodying the resilience of the West. “People don’t move out here to figure out who they are - they become who they’re meant to be once they arrive,” Coila says.

A Legacy of Stories

The stories of the West are timeless, passed down around campfires and woven into the fabric of life here in the Rocky Mountains. Like those stories, Coila hopes her paintings will live on, evoking emotion and connection for generations to come.

“When people come to see these paintings, I hope they experience joy,” she says. “Maybe not all of them will be considered joyful, but there’s a series of Lady Longhorns that are full of it.”

“Stories of the West” will be on display at Cassens Fine Art throughout November, with an opening reception on Friday, November 1st, from 5 to 7 pm.