Artist's admiration of Indians of the East shows in his work

By Rebecca Sloan

Robert Griffing will be on hand at the Butler museum's annual art sale this weekend.

As a youth, artist Robert Griffing loved to hunt for American Indian artifacts.

He’d comb the cornfields of his boyhood home in Linesville, Crawford County, Pa., and he’d wander the shoreline of nearby Pymatuning Lake in search of Indian weaponry and tools.

His expeditions yielded bountiful results, and he soon had a vast collection of arrowheads and stone implements once used by the Seneca and other tribes of the area.

What he also had was a growing curiosity and appreciation for the American Indians who once inhabited the Great Lakes region.

To express his admiration, he began sketching and painting Eastern Indians.

“For as long as I can remember, I painted and sketched,” Griffing said during a telephone interview from his home in Gibsonia, Pa. “I wanted to show what these Indians looked like, and I wanted to show their history in pictures.”

Griffing’s childhood passion has blossomed into a burgeoning career.

After 30 years as a commercial artist at Marc Advertising in Pittsburgh, Griffing retired in 1992 and began devoting his time to American Indian art.

Since then, he has made a name for himself as a painter of Eastern woodland Indians. His beautifully detailed works have earned him awards and recognition.

In 1993, U.S. ART Magazine identified Griffing as an artist to watch for in 1994, and that same year he was listed as one of America’s 25 top-selling artists. He also received a 2008 Masters of the American West Purchase Award for his oil painting “Council at Slippery Rock Creek.”

On Saturday and Sunday, Griffing will be at the Butler Institute of American Art as part of the museum’s 38th Holiday Arts and Crafts Show.

This is the first time Griffing has participated in the Butler’s celebrated show, and he is looking forward to coming to Youngstown.

“I’m excited about the fact that this is a great museum with period art in their permanent collection,” Griffing said.

Prints and giclees of Griffing’s paintings will be for sale, and Griffing hopes the public will respond to the elements of regional interest in his works.

“The Eastern Indians have never gotten the recognition that they should have. They’ve always been overshadowed by the Western Indians,” Griffing said. “Native American artwork always sells well out West, but the market isn’t as strong here in the East. We don’t think as much about the Native American history here. It hasn’t been focused on or romanticized the way it has been in the West, but recognition for the Eastern Indian is long overdue. It’s exciting for me to get this artwork in front of the public [in Northeast Ohio].”

Besides being lovely to behold, each one of Griffing’s paintings is like a visual history lesson.

Griffing has meticulously researched his subject matter, and it shows in every detail that comes to life on the canvas.

“I’ve relied on old journals and historical records that have very good descriptions of what the Eastern Native Americans looked like – how they dressed and how they lived, their clothing, uniforms, weapons and accoutrements.”

Another thing that enhances the accuracy of Griffing’s paintings is his participation in historical re-enactments and his friendships with knowledgeable re-enactors.

Griffing also uses models for his paintings from the Seneca Nation of Indians in Salamanca, N.Y.

He said he can complete a small portrait in one day, but it can take as long as six months to complete a larger, more detailed work.

Griffing graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and describes himself as a “painter of 18th-century scenes that involve or feature the Eastern Woodland Indian.”

He is one of 35 new vendors at this year’s Holiday Arts and Crafts Show.

The popular annual show features some of the best fine art and original, one-of-a-kind crafts, and 100 vendors will participate. Mediums include painting, photography, jewelry, paper, ceramics, fragrances, wood, leather, fiber, food, horticulture and decorative arts.

Besides Griffing, other new vendors include: Susan Gunther, a wildlife artist from Burton, Mich.; Sandy Kephart, a fiber artist from Monroeville, Pa.; and Bob Kulon, a digital photographer from Brunswick, Ohio.