Kiowa Chief- Sitting Bear

Sitting Bear 

11" x 14

SOLD"

Sitting Bear is well documented as the leader of the Kiowa 10 Bravest War Society (called the Ko-eetsenko in the Kiowa Language).  The chief was born in the Black Hills of South Dakota around 1810. He had six wives and several children before his death in 1871. This poainting was done from a photograph taken near the end of his life when he lived on a reservation. There were many photos of Sitting Bear but I found this one the most interesting. Edward Curtis, the photographer, created black and white portraits of thousands of Indians during the late 19th century and early 20th. The Indian's way of life changed drastically during that period and without Curtis' photos  much of their history might have disappeared.

Sitting Bear lived in Oklahoma when it was simply called, "Indian Territory." He was honored for his bravery and leadership. During his lifetime he watched as Indian families were separated and relocated to reservations. He strived to keep his family together.

One story in particular illustrates this well:

"Old Chief Sitting Bear left the Kiowa reservation against the threats of his U.S. Army overseers. His reason was to retrieve the bones of his son in Texas and bring them back home. Following Kiowa beliefs, the family unit was of primary importance throughout ones life.

Upon his return, he was captured, shackled and taken by wagon to Ft. Sill for leaving the reservation. With Ft. Sill in sight, he told the wagon driver and escort, "See that tree up ahead? You will not live to see the other side." He then stood up and began to sing his death song:

 'O sun. You remain forever, but we Ko-eetsenko must die.

 'O earth you remain forever, but we Ko-eetsenko must die."

According to Kiowa oral history, when he ended his song, he pulled a knife that he had been concealing and took the life of the wagon driver. The escort immediately shot Old Chief Sitting Bear to his death. It is said that Sitting Bear would rather give up his life than live without the remains of his cherished son."

Use Quality Materials But Don't Be Afraid to Experiment!

Last night brought another opportunity to admire the work of Edward Curtis, the premier Western photographer, who traveled so extensively among the North American Indian tribes. I adapted this painting from a black and white photograph and added a background from a picture I took in Sedona, AZ last year. I decided to experiment with grounds and I used a support I made myself: a sanded and gessoed 1/2" thick piece of birch. I like this surface for plein air painting because it's so absorbent and it hastens the speed of the drying. The uneven texture of the gesso offers a bit of variety to the paint application too. If you're an artist, you know we're always looking for new ways to explore a subject and sometimes a change as simple as what you paint on can make a huge difference.

Let's talk about materials for a minute. I have watched so many students struggle with cheaply made canvas and student grade paints that I think it's important to begin painting with artist quality materials immediately! How can a beginner judge whether they will like painting if the results they get are dictated by their materials? The answer is that they can't. Low quality paint will almost always result in chalky mixtures and dull color because the fillers in the paint will overpower the pigments.

What you paint on is just as important as the paint you use to paint it with. Quality materials save time and insure your painting will stand the test of time. I once went out plein air painting with some fellow artists and one of the gals showed up with mat board to paint on. I have used acrylics on gessoed mat board but oil paints should never be used on paper supports because they're not compatible. We were painting in a public place and my artist friend actually found a buyer for her painting and sold it immediately. Great for the artist- but not so good for the buyer when he finds out his painting will begin to seriously deteriorate in a few years.

If you're going to invest the time and effort in painting make sure you do a little research and purchase the best materials you can afford. Don't be afraid to experiment but don't compromise the quality of your work if you intend to sell it by using substandard grounds. 

 CHIEF BEAR CLAW

 11" x 14"

 oil on gessoed wooden panel

 DETAIL

showing the gessoed support

and how it differs from a canvas texture

The Chief's Daughter

I managed to finally finish this piece over the weekend. I am not sure if I have enough detail in the jewelry yet. On one hand I think the jewelry adds a lot to these almost monochromatic paintings that are created from black and white photos and my imagination. On the other hand, the focus should be on the girl's face and the photo is too fuzzy to really make out what is going on with the jewelry. I love Curtis' photography. Somehow he was able to make the lens capture his subject in almost the same way the human eye does. We can only truly focus on one thing at a time, making everything else around that center of vision just a bit out of focus. I tend to paint with this in mind too, so a lot of my paintings are impressionistic around the edges and sharpen into a bit of detail where I want it to.

The background was taken from a photograph I took in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona last year. The pink clouds were amazing and of course that light really helped me make decisions about what color I needed to have mixed with her skin tones.

I like her as she is but I'll hang her in a frame on the wall of my studio and wait awhile to see if anything jumps out at me.

I pulled out some of my American Indian Reference books today because I needed to look up an image for a painting commission. Most of the photographs in these books were taken by Edward S. Curtis, who left a priceless legacy when he traveled all over the West and photographed as many native Americans as he could. These black and white photographs provide a record of what members from each tribe looked like and what they wore. He recorded their names as well as their faces. The images are out of copyright so anyone can use them as references and I decided to paint another series similar to the one I did five years ago.

I intend to use photographs I've taken in the West and Southwest to add more interesting backgrounds and some of these pieces will be a bit larger than the first series, which consisted mostly of 11" x 14" and 12" x 16" canvases. When this series is painted I will reissue the prints for the older series as well. I have experimented with having some of my prints reproduced on metallic paper and the paper really enhances the look of the print, and adds 80-100 years to the life of the print as the process involves printing on metallic coated paper.

This is the initial coat of paint for "Chieftain's Daughter", 12" x 16" oil on linen.