Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-20
REDSKIN PAINTS
WESTERN SCENES
Blackfoot Indian Achieves
Striking Effects, Partly
With Use of Thumb

New York, July 20.-The red man
now has a representative in art in
the person of Lone Wolf, a Black
foot Indian, whose painting Of West
ern scenes has gained him fame in
his own state of Arizona, despite the
Western prejudice against the In
dian, and who is being recognized
as an artist of power even by con-
servative Eastern critics.
A "Redskin Rembrandt" he has
been called. His work is remark
able for its strength and ruggedness.
| He paints cowboys, canyons, lonely
plains and gorgeous skies; he re-
produces the places and figures that
| he knows as no white man ever can.
He is original, and almost entirely
self f-taught-his technique has been
built up practically through his own
efforts, for the only outside guild
ance which he has received came
| from q short period of study in a
Chicago art school. The paints ne
used in his early work were made
from mixing the clays to be found
near his ARIZONA home, it is said,
and he still uses his thumb in lieu
| of a brush, for obtaining his Western
sky and cloud effects-effeets re-
| markable for their harbaric beauty.
Lone Wolf is a Blackfoot Indian
1 tsah Of ae IN 20
| tourists who have seen him at his
home. How he came to start his ca
reer, what impulse led him to begin
/ the study of art and pursue his lone
| ly way to fame is mystery even
to Arizenians who live near him and
/ have known him for years. Possibly
a chance glimpse of the work of
some painter making studies of
Western landscapes and people first
led him to try painting the scenes
and characters that surrounded him,
with such crude instruments as he
could devise.
Studio Near Roosevelt Dam
His studio is near the Roosevelt
Dam, in an old cement manufacture
ing building that was abandoned af-
ter the completion of the dam. He
has commodious quarters, and works
there steadily to fill fast-increasing
/
Roland r. Conklin, of New York,
is the first collector in the East to
own any of Lone VOLTS work, so far
as is known. Lone VOLTS work was
brought to Mr.. Conkiin's attention
while he was touring in Arizona, and
he was so favorably impressed with
it that he purchased two canvases.
The first depicts a cowboy on horse
back descending a steep bank in the
dusk. The cowboy has let loose the
rains to enable him to light a ciga-
ret, and the pony is picking his way,
unguided, while the lighted match
illuminates the brenzed race of the
rider. The second picture is study
of color effects in the Grand Canyon.
Mr.. Conklin says that Lone Wolf is
an unusual man in appearance anu
conversation, as well as in his artis-
tic abilities. He has the long, 1.-the,
/, supple body sof the Western Indian,
graceful and easy of movement. The
face is striking-much too refined to
coincide with, the ordinary concep-
ton of the features of the Indian,
| giving an impression of quiet conf
dence and restrained power that one
remembers.
Mr.. Conklin denied the reports
that Lone VOLTS painting was done
by using his thumb ntirely In place
of brush. but said THAI, although
he used the thumb for working III
some of his remarkable cloud effects,
in most of his painting he used the
conventional artists instruments.