Born and continuing to live in Provo, Utah, Michael Coleman is a prominent Southwestern landscape painter in a traditional style and is much influenced by 19th-century painters Henry Farny, Thomas Moran and George Inness and by 19th and 20th century animal painter, Carl Rungius. Coleman is known for his landscapes of rich colors in a combination of realism and atmospheric styles, often with animals depicted and the suggestion of natural harmony between the artist, the animal, and the wide world of nature.

He grew up fishing and hunting and seemed always to want to be an artist. He majored in fine arts at Brigham Young University, and then traveled widely for subject matter.

Coleman paints primarily with gouache on masonite primed with gesso and then marks out key areas including the horizon line. He works from the top to the bottom of the canvas and adds highlights towards the end.

He has exhibited at the National Academy of Western Art and at Kennedy Galleries in New York. In 1978, he was given his first retrospective at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center at the age of 32, and in 1999, he won the Prix de West Award at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his bronze of a moose titled "September 39." The work will join the permanent collection of the Hall of Fame. He has also exhibited with the National Park Academy in their exhibitions called "Arts for the Parks", intended to direct artists back to landscape painting of western national parks. In 1987, he was in the "Arts for the Parks" inaugural exhibition with his entry "Yellowstone Park".