One
of the hobbies I enjoy the most is painting these resin or white metal cast
figures of historic personalities. This
one is of a Shawnee War Chief named Pucksinwah, the father of
Tecumseh. Not someone you would want to
meet in a dark alley. He was an avowed enemy
of the white man.
His
village was Chalahgawathaor Old Chillicothe, just north of Xenia, Ohio, along the Little Miami
River, east of Dayton where I grew up.
We used to go camping and canoeing on that river. My mother lived in Springfield, Ohio so I would
always drive past the site of this village north of Xenia on my way to
visit. U.S. 68 is historically a Shawnee
trail running the length of Ohio. It is also
part of the old stage coach road and is still a nice road to drive.
Both
Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton were held prisoner at this village and Kenton was
forced to run a gauntlet here. Pucksinwah waged war on Daniel Boone and his
friends for invading and settling into the great and sacred hunting grounds of
Can-tuc-kee to the south. Much
Tomahawking and scalping ensued. He
actually captured Boone once and took him and seventeen other Kentuckians back
to his village. Most were executed in
not very nice ways. Boone escaped when
the Shawnees took him to Fort Detroit to sell him to the British. The British who wanted to hang him as a rebel. Pucksinwah
was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant
October 10, 1774 fighting Lord Dunmore’s British volunteers from Virginia.
“Pucksinwah shook his head sadly. To the very marrow of
his bones he knew there could never be a true peace between whites and Indians.
As surely as summer follows spring, the whites would not stop at the river
valley of western Pennsylvania. Inevitably they would spread down the
Spay-lay-wi-theepi -- Ohio River -- to settle in the great and sacred hunting
grounds of Can-tuc-kee. The Shawnees from the north and Cherokee from the south
might share the bounty of that land below the great river, but no tribe -- nor
white man! -- must be permitted to take up permanent residence there.“
The
figure was given to by my mentor Bob Knee, who was giving me figure painting
lessons. Bob was a Grand Master with the
Atlanta Military Figure Society
and the author of the book Color Theory and Application. Bob passed away in 2007 and we miss him
dearly.
I’ve been a member of the society for over
fifteen years now and have learned a great deal about oil painting from all of them.
The
finished bust is about four inches tall and was cast in resin by a company
called Pony Soldier. The figure was first
painted in acrylics as a base color and then painted over with artist oils to
give it life like flesh tones with shades and shadows. The eagle feathers were cast out of resin and
came with the kit.
The
Native Americans of this period and this area and period wore jewelry in the
form of large earrings, nose rings and necklaces made of shell, bone or glass trade
beads. I was inspired by the paintings of Native American by Robert Griffing. I scratch built the earrings out of brass wire formed around metal tubing
and then soldered them together and painted them. The conical points or cones hanging from the
bottom of the earrings were made from the metal foil that comes wrapped around
wine bottles. The paint I used was
designed for model jet airplanes with a polished aluminum finish. I painted the beads of the necklace in flat
pastel acrylic colors.
It
was a great figure to paint and enjoyed to process. A big part of the fun for me was researching
the history and learning about the area where I used live. I think I’ll go watch Last of the Mohicans
one more time.
