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"

7 Comments

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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!

Lelia DeMello 15 May 2013

Dynamic piece...Love it!

cindy kelly 12 May 2013

Absolutely beautiful Denny, I,m so glad to see some more of your work.