Jessica Crabtree

Photo: Public domain

Click to see the full-size view – I never knew turtles had such interesting eyes.
See more of my free photos on my companion blog, Public Domain Nature Photos.

It’s finished! This is my first half-length portrait; normally I opt for a closer head and shoulders view. The original photo, as I mentioned earlier, was an old black and white taken around 1870 (public domain). As far as I can determine no one has been able to identify the photographer. However it is known that the subject’s name was Rabbit Tail and he was one of the Shoshone scouts serving in the US army under Captain Patrick Ray.

Incidentally, there is an oil painting by Joseph Henry Sharp of a Shoshone of that name, leaving many to speculate whether it is actually the same individual. The painting dates to a period when the young Rabbit Tail would have been a middle-aged man. Based on the comparison, I see some similarities, maybe even enough to make the two relatives, but I’m not convinced they’re one and the same.

Shoshone, 14×24 original pastel on suede. (click for larger view)

About the Shoshone

The Shoshone people were originally part of a very large extended family of nomadic peoples in what is today the American West. Their traditional territories centered in the arid Great Basin region, where they migrated seasonally hunting wild game and harvesting wild foods. Each of their main bands identified themselves after the staple food they followed.

Migratory bands of Shoshone were among the first Native Americans encountered by European fur traders and adventurers who ventured West in the early 1800s. Perhaps the most famous Shoshone individual of all is Sacagawea, the young woman who worked as a guide and translator for the Lewis & Clark expedition in 1804-1806.

Charles Banks Wilson (born 1918) is an Oklahoma artist famed for his Native American portraits, historical commissions, and mural art. He started drawing at an early age and received training at the Chicago Art Institute, quickly finding work as an apprentice illustrator.

His most popular works are the official commissioned portraits of Oklahoma legends such as Will Rogers and Jim Thorpe, part of the collection of the Oklahoma Capitol. One of the first pieces to earn him wide acclaim was his 1941 lithograph Freedom’s Warrior, modeled after a Comanche code talker, and later re-created as an oil painting.

Wilson’s exhibit page at the University of Arkansas, Celebrating Native America, says:

Images such as “Cherokee Matriarch,” “Katie ‘Osage’ Cheyenne,” and “Osage Orator” reveal Native Americans caught in the transition between native and white America. Wilson says this transition “was not a popular theme in anyone’s opinion” because “Americans wanted the Indian to remain a nostalgic keepsake, committed forever to chasing the buffalo across the boundless prairies.”

Wilson admits he was a bit baffled when people asked him “why I was making social comments.” He says simply, “I was just painting what my eyes saw.”

“Search for the Purebloods”

His most ambitious project was a catalog of portrait drawings of pure-blooded Native Americans. The resulting odyssey spanned fifty years of work and portrayals of over a hundred individuals, many of whom were the last individuals of their nation to have non-mixed heritage.

Wilson’s close attention to accuracy and solid, intuitive technique – combined with his good nature – earned him a strong rapport with his subjects, who willingly modeled for his portraits. In return, he promised never to sell their likenesses and instead donated the finished original collection to the Gilcrease Museum. The published edition, Search for the Native American Purebloods, was released by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1983.

Wilson was the subject of a public television documentary released in 2006 interviewing the artist and highlighting his major career achievements. (Watch an excerpt here.)

He has exhibited his work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Museum, and received countless prestigious awards for his art, historical research, and educational & cultural contributions.

University of Arkansas: Charles Banks Wilson’s Celebrating Native America Exhibit

Charles Banks Wilson exhibit at the Will Rogers Museum

Q: What was the first Indian reservation?

A: The most common answer is the Lenape reservation at Indian Mills, established by the New Jersey colonial assembly in 1758. However, the history of reservations in the colonies goes back much earlier, predating the Lenape reserve by at least a century.

Pamunkey-Mattaponi Reservation
(Virginia, 1658)

The first colonial record of an Indian reservation comes from the Virginia colony, where in 1658 – a hundred years before New Jersey’s Lenape reservation was formed – the Virginia General Assembly voted on a land reserve for the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes. These were among the most powerful members of the region’s Powhatan Confederacy (of Pocahontas fame).

A 1677 treaty between the English throne and the representatives of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi recognized their rights as autonomous nations. The reservation survived the transition of the American Revolution and has remained a continuously sovereign entity to this day.

Mashantucket Pequot Reservation
(Connecticut, 1666)

Another example of the earliest reservations originated just a few years later, further north in New England. There, in the aftermath of the devastating Pequot War, the Connecticut colonial assembly set aside a land reserve for the Mashantucket Pequot.

Like the Pamunkey-Mattaponi nation of Virginia, the Pequot reservation still exists today, but only narrowly escaped being dissolved on several occasions. King Philip’s War in 1680 pitted American colonists against an alliance of Wampanoag, Narraganset, and other Indian nations of New England, and nearly resulted in the extermination of several peoples, including the Pequot. In the ensuing centuries, the reservation area dwindled from 3,000 to 200 acres, and was nearly liquidated until the surviving Mashantucket band underwent a cultural revival in the 1970s.

Back to the Indian Mills Reservation
(New Jersey, 1758)

In the mid-1700s, the Lenni-Lenape people (also known as the Delaware) had lost access to most of their traditional grounds and petitioned for a land reserve on which to form a small autonomous community. Known as Brothertown, or Brotherton, it was organized largely under Christian missionary efforts and became an amalgam of members from various nations, including Pequots, Narragansets, and Mohegans, who associated on the basis of their common religious practices.

The reservation was formally dissolved in 1801, but by that time they had reorganized on land donated by the Oneida Nation of New York. Eventually they were forced to move again, resettling in Wisconsin along with much of the Oneida Nation during the Indian Removals of the 1830s. (continue reading…)

(Click for larger view)

My latest pastel is about halfway finished. Next I’ll be working on the armbands and hands, and finishing his leather vest. After that, some detail work and a few finishing touches and I’ll consider it done.

A quick trick I learned for imitating metallic objects, like the silver-studded border on his vest:
use a plain white colored pencil.

Colored pencils are terrible on suede, but they come in very handy for this one purpose. I use them wherever I need to indicate points of light or very small areas of brilliant white. It’s so much easier than trying to achieve this with chalks. The best part is that the combination of textures works very well – the pencil won’t smear on the suede, so I can cover it with chalk and it still shows up well. Besides, I like the effect.

More to come…

Chiaroscuro is one of the most important and fundamental techniques in art, particularly in any style that makes use of realism. The textbook definition for chiaroscuro (Italian for “light-dark“) is simply the use of value (shading) to create an illusion of depth and volume on a two-dimensional surface. More commonly, it refers to the use of strong contrast or unusual lighting to create a strong dramatic effect.

A painting or drawing, even if it is proportionally correct, looks flat and lifeless without shading. Chiaroscuro is an essential element, especially in portraits and still life, where it is not only functional – giving the shapes depth and definition – but a potentially explosive means of conveying drama and emotion.

The basis of chiaroscuro stems from the observation of the way light behaves on surfaces. By reproducing this behavior accurately on paper or canvas, you can create an image that is visually authentic to the eye of the viewer. We all have an intuitive grasp of how light interacts with the world around us – for instance, we all expect to see an area of brightness where light reflects off an object, or a patch of shadow where light is blocked. But light sometimes behaves in more subtle ways of which we aren’t always conscious. The artist can take advantage of these subtleties to create a convincing chiaroscuro effect.

Image: University of Evansville

Adding the dimension of color creates a whole new set of complexities in working with chiaroscuro. Because the level of intensity in the lighting changes the way we perceive a given hue, color chiaroscuro is more challenging for artists to work with than just black and white or gray-scale (more on light and color here). But black and white is the best way to learn chiaroscuro, since it illustrates how powerful a tool it is even in the absence of color. With a little study, it is a simple and effective application of the comparatively difficult science of optical physics.

Chiaroscuro first came to prominent use during the Italian Renaissance. An especially popular form known as tenebrism, pioneered by painters such as Caravaggio, used exaggerated lighting contrast for heightened effect. This was a favorite style of painters like Rembrandt and El Greco and heavily influenced later styles of painting in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is interesting to note that many of the famed artists who made the strongest use of chiaroscuro were also great draftsmen, having first mastered the use of shading through drawings in mediums such as pencil or silverpoint.

Rembrandt, The Philosopher in Meditation

More on this subject:

Chiaroscuro in Painting: The Power of Light and Dark – illustrated article from Empty Easel

WebExhibits: Color Vision & Art – fully interactive, with lots more on the history of contrast & color in art

HINTS OF COLOR: Light & Color

A beaver can hold its breath underwater for 45 minutes.

Vultures can fly for six hours without flapping their wings.

The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.

A honeybee can reach speeds of 15 mph; a dragonfly can fly up to 36 mph.

There are more caribou in Alaska than there are people.

Male kangaroos are known as boomers and females are known as flyers. It is impossible for a kangaroo to walk backwards.

The starfish is the only animal that can turn its stomach inside-out.

Porcupines float in water.

Thanks to Snapple.com for these wildlife tidbits (yes, I’m a huge Snapple fan!) They print these “Real Facts” on the inside of the lids. See their website for more.

Photo from National Geographic.

Ely Parker, or Ha-sa-no-an-da (“Leading Name”), was born in the Seneca Nation in 1828. Through his mother he was descended from prominent Iroquois leaders such as Red Jacket and Handsome Lake. He showed promising aptitude for learning and attended American boarding schools, later graduating from college with a degree in engineering. He distinguished himself early in life by strong administrative and diplomatic skills, and already he had begun to forge important associations with individuals who would later play crucial roles in his career.

-Career

After graduating, Parker worked at a law office, but was refused admission to the bar because he was not a legal citizen (Indians were not granted US citizenship until 1924). Later he used his college training to obtain work as a civil engineer; his resume included major construction projects in the Great Lakes region and maintenance of the Erie Canal.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Union army as an engineer, but was refused because of his race. He brought his case before a friend – future general U.S. Grant – who interceded on his behalf. Parker was later appointed Grant’s adjutant, served as his personal secretary under the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was eventually promoted to Brigadier General. He was the highest-ranking Native American in the Union Army.

It was Parker who wrote the final draft of the Confederate terms of surrender that were served at the Appomattox courthouse. (It is also interesting to note that on the opposing side, it was another Native American – Cherokee chief Stand Watie – who was the last Confederate general to surrender.) At the surrender at Appomattox, General Lee is said to have remarked, “I am glad to see one real American here” – to which Parker replied, “We are all Americans, sir.” It was this kind of open-minded and forward-thinking mentality that marked Parker’s entire career.

-Indian Affairs

As one of the ten chiefs of the Seneca nation (a post which he had held since 1851), Parker served as a cultural liaison between the US and his Seneca people. After the Civil War he continued to distinguish himself through his efforts as a diplomat and translator, becoming an attaché for the Office of Indian Affairs.

He was a powerful proponent of Indian’s rights in a time when few people were willing to speak on their behalf. He used his unique influence in politics to address the pressing issues arising with the white migration and settlement of the Plains. In his Report on Indian Affairs released in 1867, he opened with this bleak and forthright assessment:

“…as the hardy pioneer and adventurous miner advanced into the inhospitable regions occupied by the Indians, in search of the precious metals, they found no rights possessed by the Indians that they were bound to respect. The faith of treaties solemnly entered into were totally disregarded, and Indian territory wantonly violated. If any tribe remonstrated against the violation of their natural and treaty rights, members of the tribe were inhumanely shot down and the whole treated as mere dogs. Retaliation generally followed, and bloody Indian wars have been the consequence, costing many lives…”

In 1869 he was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs – the first Native American to hold the post (and the first Native American to hold any cabinet-level government office). Despite his efforts for reform, his advice went largely unheeded, and after two years he resigned from the post. He became increasingly disillusioned and even disgusted with American policies towards Native Americans. (continue reading…)

TOP 3 ELEMENTS THAT DRAW THE EYE

1. Contrast
2. Gradient
3. Pattern

The primary goal of art is to draw the eye of the viewer in order to capture their attention, and then focus it on the detail and meaning of the piece. Since this principle is the same whatever medium or genre you work in, it’s good to be familiar with the fundamentals of aesthetics.

Generally, we are most attracted to things that display these elements:

► CONTRAST:
Contrast, next to color, is possibly the most striking feature in visual art. As a rule, the stronger the contrast, and the sharper the dividing edge, the higher the visual attraction.


Photo: interfacelift.com

► GRADIENT:
A smooth gradient from one color to another, or between tints (color > white) or tones (color > black) suggests light and depth. The sense of texture it creates is a powerful and appealing visual element.


Photo: US Fish & Wildlife Service – public domain

► PATTERN:
Patterns – including implied patterns, such as broken lines – create symmetry and direction for visual interest.

They’re found everywhere in nature (a good example is fractals, for instance) and our brains are hard-wired to recognize them – so unless you’re working in something completely abstract, it’s important to work some kind of pattern into every composition.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

You can take advantage of these simple elements to make any artwork more compelling.

Click on the “Artist’s Tip Bag” tag below for more posts like this one.

NAPT (Native American Public Telecommunications) is releasing a new documentary on the Choctaw code operators or World War I – the first Native Americans to employ their language as a code for the US military. The debut is set for premier in October. See the NAPT site for more details:

Native American Public Telecommunications: Choctaw Code Talkers film

View the trailer here:

Although the Choctaw units of the first World War were the original “code talkers,” their work was highly covert and today is often overlooked in favor of the more famous Navajo code talkers of World War II. In reality dozens of Indian nations and other indigenous peoples participated in these secret language programs, contributing vastly to the Allied efforts in both wars.

Click here for more on the Code Talkers

Visit my Links page for more great Native documentaries like We Shall Remain and March Point.

Here’s the first look at my newest portrait, Shoshone, 14×24 pastel on suede. Click to enlarge.

My reference photo is an old black and white of a young Shoshone scout, taken in the 1870′s. More on that later…