“Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word”
Hello again! The reason I say that is some of you may remember me from when I previously graced the pages of this esteemed publication back in the good old days (last March). That time it was about my bird paintings, a collection of 10 canvases entitled “Uncle Tim’s World of Birds”. Well, this short piece is about painting, too, with a few distinct differences. One, the birds have temporarily been put on the shelf, but will soon enough be back in circulation thanks to the good graces of the City of Santa Clarita, which has graciously consented to hang them for public viewing in the local libraries. Furthermore, no more plein aire painting in the parks. A bit too warm these days, so it’s back inside an air conditioned studio for me, complete with energetic kitten. Lastly, I’ve embarked on a whole new theme, one that takes me to a time, place, and era that has been a lifelong obsession and unending source of fascination, the Old West.
Here’s what happened: I came across a full-length photo of William S. Hart in his role as Wild Bill Hickock in the film of the same name from 1926, a very dynamic pose. Then on a sojourn to the Ventura swap meet I spotted an old and faded 15x30 painting in a beautiful vintage frame, priced about the same as a typical breakfast at the Saugus Café, and thought “now wouldn’t that Bill Hart portrait look good in that?” Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it I was launched on an ambitious new project and am now
producing a whole series of portraits of famous old time Western characters.
Here’s how it works: I look for, and dig deep for, fullbody photographic portraits of memorable Western personalities with an emphasis on show business. Examples are the aforementioned Bill Hart, Tom Mix, Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, a young Will Rogers, a wonderful action image of Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash, etc. These photos become the basis and inspiration for the paintings. Planned for the future are some of the prominent Indians from the Battle of the Little Bighorn (my favorite Western event), as well as any suitable images I might dig up as a result of my relentless digging through libraries, museum archives, historical society collections, used book stores, etc. My present Holy Grail is a full-body photo of Wallace Beery in his movie role as Pancho Villa from 1934. I guess the reason I want to do that is that my Dad, as a teenager in the ‘30s, painted a head and shoulders portrait of him. Carry on the tradition, so to speak.
Another aspect of my project is the framing, which is almost as much fun as the painting itself. I steadfastly refuse to have fancy new frames either purchased or made for these paintings; rather, I search out vintage frames from a wide variety of sources and recondition, refurbish, and renew them. This task is made somewhat easier in that the majority of my canvases are 16x20, a somewhat common frame size. Aside from being a lot more inexpensive than using new store bought or custom made frames, the older wooden frames with a weathered look about them lend themselves quite nicely to the Old West theme.
The right frame is one thing, but locating suitable photographic resources is another. I suppose I’ve gone through almost every illustrated Western history book in public libraries in 5 or 6 Southern California counties, and as a consequence am quite familiar with the more common, mainstream images. So what really lights me up is little-known, obscure, and forgotten photos, the type that are often found in older copyright books. As a matter of fact, I recently came across an 1868 photograph of General George A. Custer that had never been previously published. But what makes my task all the more difficult is that as the years roll on Western history itself is becoming all the more dim and distant, retreating as it is into the mists of time, and as a result historical resources grow ever more scant.
That is not to say, however, that there isn’t a vibrant and active community of hard-core Western history buffs out there, and I hope one day to have at least some of them see these paintings. I am happy to report that my dream will become a reality next spring, when I will have my paintings on display at the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Old Town Newhall. I hope you can make it.