CHEYENNE MOON - DANNY REYES

Here is my latest piece. It is titled Cheyenne Moon. The model’s name is Danny Reyes. My very good friend, Andrew Hogarth, photographer/writer/storyteller from Australia took the outstanding reference photograph that I used to create this painting. Andrew, in his own words describes how it all happened:

“In early August 1992, Kim, my wife and I attended the private Cheyenne Powwow at Colony, Oklahoma. We had been invited by John Sipes, Jr. the Cheyenne Tribal/Historian. The year before Kim and I had worked with John on our booklet Cheyenne Hole: The Story of the Sappa Creek Massacre, 23rd April, 1875. The Grand Entry for the powwow was 7:00 pm and by that time it was dusk and nearly no light at all. About twenty to seven, as the dancers were making their way to the arbour, I spotted this ghostlike figure appear from the crowd in the camp. I quickly walked up to the young traditional dancer and asked if I could snap a couple of images on film. The young man nodded and I shot the two images. He later said his name was Danny Reyes from the Cheyenne Nation. When I developed the film on the Monday I found one of the two images were badly blurred and the second images sharp but still a touch blurred. Still it was good enough was inclusion in my first exhibition collection ‘Native Lands: The West Of The American Indian.’ This image was highlighted in the Native Lands showing at the Jackson Hole Museum during The Falls Arts festival in September, 1996. I met with Danny again at Colony in 1996 and we created the second set of images with his new regalia. I asked him about his regalia from 1992 and he said that during a dinner break at a powwow in Albuquerque it was stolen.”

I wanted to point out something in this piece that I didn’t notice until after I was about half way through the painting. If you look closely, check out the gold painted shape on David’s face. It is very cleverly painted to represent a crescent moon using his actual eye and nose, giving us the title that Andrew and I came up with, Cheyenne Moon.

This painting is traditional oils on Ampersand Gessobord Masonite.

Signed and number prints are available. Edition of 50.

Original is available. $3200

Measures: 11" x 14"

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Anna Lo Bello 14 May 2014

amazing painting!

John Cappello 09 Jun 2013

Very impressive Work, You Did A Great Job Here Spectacular Scene.

Marcus Matthew 08 Jun 2013

Very impressive

craig moline 08 Jun 2013

Fantastic work as usual, Denny! A God given gift you have, for sure.

Fiona Hooper 28 May 2013

It's so lovely to have some background on the subject. Excellent work!