When you finish reading this article, take a moment to clear away all the background distractions you’re able to eliminate. Open the magazine, or your browser, to one of Z.S. Liang’s paintings. If you’re a collector fortunate enough to own one of his works, go stand in front of it. Take in, for a few minutes, the sun-washed faces and the buckskin-clad figures, the moody skies and the red earth, the fur-trimmed clothing and the high-spirited horses, the surrounding scenery. Do your best, knowing what you know about Native American history, to piece together the story you are witnessing.
Every element of Liang’s pictures tells a story. Are those dark clouds on the horizon moving closer, or away?
Z. S. Liang (California)
Lone Rider, Milk River Valley
Oil
36″x54″
“Morning dawns in the Milk River Valley. The return of spring finds everything in Mother Nature in good spirits. An Assiniboine band chief looks for a good location for his people to camp, with the hope that the buffalo will soon return.”
Z. S. Liang (California)
In the Morning Mist
Oil
24″x30″
“On a quiet morning, two Wampanoag men are preparing for deer hunting.”
