| Last Days of The Bison |
| Image Dimensions 11 3/8 " X 20 3/4" |
| Edition of 500 |
| $105. ea. |
| Visitors to this page |
I don't often do an entire painting from borrowed reference material,
however, when I purchased a book about the famous American
photographer, Edward Curtis and discovered this image, I was hooked.
The image was in black and white, but stunning. The little dog at the
horizon caught my attention and made me realize not only the people
were looking for something; the missing bison herds.
I did a bit of visual detective work in arriving at the colours in the image.
First, the man's robe had two stripes and the womans had three. One set
of stripes were common in shade in the B&W photo; this was the typical
gray in a Hudsons Bay blanket. His other stripe was lighter than hers.
Since red appears lighter than blue in a B&W photo, I deducted that his
other stripe was red and hers was blue. Her third stripe was darker than
the horse and the horse had to be white, so her third stripe had to be
yellow. Everything else in the B&W photo, like the buckskin, sky,
travoius and canvas, would be the same colour a hundred years ago as
today. The only thing I guessed at was his bandana and I wanted some
green in the painting. The original photo is in the American Library of
Congress. In order for me to use this image as reference to produce this
print, the copyright laws in Canada allow it's use based on the ruling,
"any photograph in the public domain longer than 50 years is fair game".
however, when I purchased a book about the famous American
photographer, Edward Curtis and discovered this image, I was hooked.
The image was in black and white, but stunning. The little dog at the
horizon caught my attention and made me realize not only the people
were looking for something; the missing bison herds.
I did a bit of visual detective work in arriving at the colours in the image.
First, the man's robe had two stripes and the womans had three. One set
of stripes were common in shade in the B&W photo; this was the typical
gray in a Hudsons Bay blanket. His other stripe was lighter than hers.
Since red appears lighter than blue in a B&W photo, I deducted that his
other stripe was red and hers was blue. Her third stripe was darker than
the horse and the horse had to be white, so her third stripe had to be
yellow. Everything else in the B&W photo, like the buckskin, sky,
travoius and canvas, would be the same colour a hundred years ago as
today. The only thing I guessed at was his bandana and I wanted some
green in the painting. The original photo is in the American Library of
Congress. In order for me to use this image as reference to produce this
print, the copyright laws in Canada allow it's use based on the ruling,
"any photograph in the public domain longer than 50 years is fair game".
