Anatomy of a Composition - Remington's Inspiration

The first time I was introduced to a Fredric Remington painting was with my grandfather. Remington had used his talents in a series of ad campaigns and those prints dotted in the various spaces where my grandpa lived, worked and played. Burney was an avid outdoorsman, and the season did not matter.

While Remington was known as an illustrator, the landscapes he placed his subjects in were always dramatic, with intense light, shadow but more muted hues. He was part of a group of artists influenced and trained by Howard Pyle, at his Brandywine School.

One time, while out with my grandparents, we came across a painting that hung in a small diner in Northern Michigan, and while I’m not certain it was a Remington print, it held the dramatic and stylized light that were common in his work, and the works of Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and others from the Brandywine School. I remember being mesmerized by the conflicting and chaotic cloud movement, thinking that nothing like that could possibly exist. It was only later, after moving to the West that I could finally see and understand the inspiration for the scene, and grasp that in fact, those scenes did exist.

This image was created using photographs from a Northern Michigan sunset, from late June, 2021. While watching the sunset from the north pier jutting out into Lake Michigan, the play of light from the setting sun on the wispy clouds flipped a switch deep in my memory. Whether it was Remington, Parrish or Wyeth that stood out as the inspiration for the final image I’m not sure, it was a good reminder that our history and experiences really do inform our present and what we carry forward from today will only add to that rich well of memories.

Lake Michigan, Remington's Inspiration - June, 2021

ISO 100 | F/10 | 1/200 sec. - Sony a7riv w/Sony FE 135GM - 8 image vertical panorama, edited and stitched together in Lightroom and Photoshop