One of George Northup's greatest achievements may be a rare collaboration
that can never be equaled again. History will remember Northup as the
first artist who convinced Bob Kuhn - arguably the finest painter of wildlife in
our time - to swap his brush for a block of clay.
What made Kuhn finally switch mediums, albeit temporarily?
"Being dogged by George for one thing," he says. "For
a long period of time, I thought I ought to be able to do a bronze. I
paint in a three dimensional way and have some knowledge of animal anatomy, but
I could never stay with sculpting. I never really could get hooked on
it."
Once Northup agreed to make the armature, he mailed Kuhn a photograph of a
small group of elk crossing a stream. They began the collaboration after
Kuhn sketched the scene he wanted to bring to life.
The
initial phase involved Kuhn spending fifteen hours in Northup's Jackson Hole
studio over a period of several days, interwoven, of course, by fishing and an
afternoon in nearby Yellowstone National Park observing elk in the wild.
"It was nowhere near finished when my wife and I had to leave," Kuhn
says. "Later, George came down to Tucson with his pickup truck and
the clay in the back of it. We lugged it out onto the patio and put in a
week. We really worked hard."
The result is a beautifully complex piece titled River Crossing
that was produced in a standard edition size of twenty-eight. Northup says
both men gave the artist's proofs to their children as mementos of the
partnership.
"I learned a great deal with George there showing me all the
mechanical aspects, warming up the clay, and putting it on the armature,"
Kuhn says, "I learned what looks good on bronze and what doesn't."
