Hi Everyone,

Here’s some highlights from my spring 2013 western paintings. Might be my best output of western work yet.

The background in the Nez Perce piece is South Sister from Sparks Lake area close to my house in Oregon. They lived aways north of here up in the Wallowa Valley but no doubt wandered around down here. They say Chief Joseph was a compulsive wanderer. Maybe it looked like this?

The Tlingit tribe in coastal Alaska does unbelievably beautiful wood carving. Their famous for their dance masks which I just drool over. I basically built this image from scratch with bits and pieces, a figure and a face I liked, a carving from another place after I looked through museum pictures for days, researched their clothing and invented the background from pictures of the ranges around their village.

You wouldn’t believe all the things that go in to making these pictures. It’s rarely ever simple. The painting is actually the easy part if you can believe that…It usually takes way longer to do the research/travel etc. than the actual painting.

These guys aren’t really walking around like this these days so you have to be creative.

Sometimes it’s just like what my daughter would do with one of her dolls. I take a basic figure from a posed model ( maybe someone local from the Warm Springs reservation or in a pinch my son ) and dress them up like they might have looked and match the figures to a background from their tribal lands…which means you have to go visit those places and see if you can get a feel for the right story to tell.

The fun is in the adventure of it all and bringing to life what these people might have looked like.

I like to drive the backroads through Wyoming, Montana etc. I blur my eyes and pretend the cattle are buffalo.

All you start out with is a rough idea or feeling and on the way to figuring out what that looks like you never know where your gonna end up.

God gives inspiration if you pray for it…sometimes more than you know what to do with…I got a life time of stuff I’ll probably never get around to..at least in this life.

We’ll have a new permanent page up soon.

These are studio snapshots for now. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.

In the meantime for those interested in originals call Peter Orsatti at 541 306 1174 or e-mail at peterinbend@gmail.com for availability and more info. He’s a very nice man and we’ll help you with whatever you need. He’s there so I don’t give away the farm…

All these pieces are oil on linen.

Best to Everyone.

More posts soon.

Aloha, M.C.