Description: Oil (1985) | Image Size: 32”h x 44”w; Framed Size: 43”h x 55”w

Howard Terpning is a consummate artist able to handle every facet of a painting with skill and dexterity from the quality of the figures, the details of the landscape, the handling of tone and value, and the use of light and color. In this painting he also shows that he is a master of composition. He cleverly leads the eye of the viewer from the top right of the painting by including a rocky path that descends into a pool of sunlight that envelops the two Apaches and focuses the viewer’s attention on their efforts to start a fire. One of the Apaches has raised a handful of smoking grass to his lips to gently blow on the beginning flame with the resulting white smoke drifting off to the left. The two figures, the campfire, and the smoke are all caught in the pool of light that is in the center of the scene. The effect is to carefully lead the viewer down the path from the forest to the ongoing action. Terpning has created a scene from the history of the Southwest and he has quietly immersed the viewer into that time and place.

This painting merited the Gold Medal in oil painting at the 20th Annual Cowboy Artists of America Show & Sale in 1985 at the Phoenix Art Museum. Since that time it has been loaned and exhibited at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, CA, The Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY, and Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, GA. It is depicted in the book entitled “Howard Terpning: The Storyteller”, authored by Don Dedera and published by Greenwich Workshop in 1989.

Description: Gouache (1994) | Image Size: 12”h x 9”w; Framed Size: 25”h x 21 ½”w

The lines and creases etched into this Plains Indian’s face speak volumes and Terpning presents him in a way that allows the viewer to relate directly to him. A bland background and the dark hair of the subject draw our attention specifically to the face. Reddish feathers adorn his hair adding an effective contrast to the overall presentation.

Description: Oil (2004) | Image Size: 37”h x 35”w; Framed Size: 49”h x 47”w

Skilled in many demanding domestic tasks of their culture, Crow women passed their traditions down from one generation to the next, ensuring the future of their tribe and customs. In this family portrait the distinctive and expressive faces of the grandmother, mother and granddaughter are unique and yet universal. The middle generation carries the weight of responsibility with dignity, the elder, perhaps, now knows joy in understanding the circle of all life. And the adolescent is in that awkward stage we see in many of our own family portraits.

Painted against an almost abstract background, there are no landscape or interior details because Terpning’s intent is to focus attention solely on the three women drawing the viewer into their world.

Description: Oil (1993) | Image Size: 33”h x 20”w; Framed Size: 44”h x 27 ¾”w

In “Spirit of the Plains People – Howard Terpning” authored by Don Hedgpeth, the narrative of this piece reads: Canada had adopted a more enlightened approach in dealing with its native inhabitants in the West than did the United States. This was due in large part to the commercial interests and political influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company which controlled the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the western territories and into the Pacific Northwest along both sides of the international border.

The Blackfoot bands that lived and hunted buffalo on the prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan had an easier life than their brothers in Montana who were among the first victims of white intrusion and disease in the American West. The Blood People were a Canadian band of the Blackfoot. This Blood elder might scout for the Mounties and carry the British flag, but his heart still belongs to the Blackfoot.

This full length portrait of a mounted Blood Indian holding the Union Flag is replete with historic details of clothing, ornamentation, and weaponry. Terpning demonstrates his knowledge of the history of the era with his attention to the details. The subject is wearing traditional hide clothing that has been decorated with beadwork and leather fringes. The figure has a rifle balanced across his saddle which is consistent with the customs of the day. Historical accuracy and authentic details contribute to the quality of this painting, but it is Terpning’s artistic skill in his deft handling of the surrounding landscape and cloud dappled sky, his striking use of color and his depiction of the subject’s essence that sets the painting apart. The lighting, which casts a spotlight on the horse is superb and heightens the painting’s many details.

Honors/Awards:
Artists’ Choice Award for body of work
“28th Annual Cowboy Artists of America Exhibition & Sale 1993”
Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix AZ)
October 22 – November 21, 1993

Exhibitions/Shows:
“28th Annual Cowboy Artists of America Exhibition & Sale 1993”
Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix AZ)
October 22 – November 21, 1993

Description: Oil (1979) | Image Size: 30”h x 48”w; Framed Size: 41”h x 59”w

Description: Mixed Media (1979) | Image Size: 24”h x 16”w; Framed Size: 29 ½”h x 23 ½”w

Ornamented with traditional beads, feathers, trade goods, and wearing a bone breast plate and peace medal, this Kiowa brave represents the Native American culture of the Southern Plains.

Description: Oil (1997) | Image Size: 40”h x 60”w; Framed Size: 54.5”h x 74”w

In the book entitled “Spirit of the Plains People – Howard Terpning,” authored by Don Hedgpeth and published by The Greenwich Workshop in 2001 the following narrative was written: Winter was often a mean season of hard times and hunger for the Native American tribes who lived out upon the Great Plains. This was particularly true for the Blackfoot, whose traditional territory extended from western Montana northward into Canada. Once the buffalo began to disappear with the coming of the white man, it grew increasingly difficult for the Indians to lie in enough stores of meat and warm robes in hunting season to last out the dark days of winter. When the white soldiers began their relentless campaign to seek out and destroy the People, survival became even more uncertain in every season. The Prairie was no longer a sanctuary for the People, but a netherworld of hardship and despair. In time, the hunters became hunted themselves.

Howard received the Artists Choice Award for his body of work which included “The Hunters and the Hunted” at the 32nd Annual Cowboy Artists of America Exhibition & Sale in 1997 which was held at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Description: Oil (1984) | Image Size: 18 ½” h x 22 ½” w; Framed Size: 28 ½” h x 32 ½” w

Purification and vision ceremonies and rituals, physical as well as spiritual, were integral parts of life on the Great Plains for many Native American cultures. This warrior prepares to enter a sweat lodge that has been constructed of buffalo hides and tree saplings. The warrior hopes that the time spent in the lodge will tax his body to its limit creating a trance-like state and conjuring a vision. The muted tones and colors of the lodge and the surrounding landscape, even the hide wrapped around the warrior, contrast sharply with the reddish tones of the warrior’s skin.

Description: Oil (2004) | Image Size: 36”w x 40”h; Framed Size: 51”w x 55”h

Description: Oil (1986) | Image Size: 34”h x 48”w; Framed Size: 44”h x 58”w

By 1882, there were at least five thousand buffalo hunters and skinners on the northern plains. By the fall of 1883, virtually all of the bison had been killed. The Plains Indians could not believe that the buffalo were gone; they thought the herds must be grazing in places they hadn’t discovered. Hunting parties would roam the Plains for weeks in search of buffalo. And, if they were fortunate enough to come upon a straggler, they would kill and consume what they could on the spot in order to survive.

Narrative provided by the artist, Howard Terpning, and depicted in the 21st Annual Cowboy Artists of America Exhibition & Sale Catalog.

Description: Oil (2002) | 42”h x 44”w

Dispatch cases were used by the Calvary from time to time to carry important dispatches. If a dispatch writer was caught in a fight with the apache warriors, his case could be lost in his haste to escape. These three warriors have come across just such a case partially covered by sand.

The Ft. Lowell Museum has this case on display in its museum. The Director of the Museum, being a friend of the artist, was kind enough to allow the case to be photographed in the daylight in order that it could be depicted accurately in this painting.

Description: Oil (2001) | Image Size: 34”h x 56”w Framed Size: 47”h x 69”w