Salish Painting...Finally finished

Well, now.  It's done, and what a challenge!  My client wanted an oil painting, a dark painting...at night with the moonlight illuminating the clouds over the Mission mountains of the Salish/Flathead reservation, with an encampment of the tribe in the meadow.  Lots of horses, little light except that of the moonlit clouds and the fires of the encampment. And, all the important animals, including his tribal name of the raven, plus the berries and plants of the region.  Oh yes, the Salish beaded bag, the child's moccasins, and most of all, the family tomahawk/pipe....which I got to see and touch.  It is almost 150 years old.

I had never done night landscapes before, but found looking at the tonalities of Remington and Whistler's Nocturnes to be helpful.  My client wanted lots of detail and the colors and values to be dark and early evening feeling, but he wanted both blue hues and warm hues as well. He wanted it like "an old tavern painting".  So, I spent a lot of time wandering around in the dark, both figuratively and literally.

For some reason, I kept thinking of that old movie, "The Illustrated Man", based on some of the stories of Ray Bradbury.  There was a daytime scene of people camped in lovely white billowing tents in a beautiful green mountain meadow.  They were peacefully gathered and waiting with tranquility for the end of the world.  I kept thinking of that scene while I was painting my night landscape with the tribal evening firelight glancing off the faces of the families and their tents and animals.

My client and I named it "Salish Twilight."  I sent him in to look at it alone before I joined him.  When I came in, he had tears in his eyes.  So much has been lost for his people.