Michael Gentry

Native American
Artwork
on Consignment

Michael Gentry (1940 to 1994), is best remembered for his rich paintings of the Native American of the middle 1800s.  Half Cherokee himself, it was the Native American that captured his interest most powerfully, leading him to actually live on four reservations at different times during his painting career:  the San Carlos Apache Reservation, the Crow Indian Reservation, the Tulalip Indian Reservation and the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. 

Mr. Gentry possessed a profound affection and undying fascination for each of the people and animals he portrayed.  After a quarter of a century of painting, he was firmly dedicated to depicting to the world the beauty and character of each subject in unerring detail.

Mr. Gentry studied at U.C.L.A., Laguna Beach School of Art, California, and had studied Animal Anatomy (bone - structure - muscle tone) and character traits of each animal.

Mr. Gentry's studies carried him to Kenya, Tanzania and the Congo in Africa; to South America, Alaska, Mexico and most portions of the U.S. in search of first-hand reference and research regarding, not only the subjects he depicted, but also the terrain and homes in which the person or animal lived and died.  He had sketched and photographed literally thousands of subjects before applying oil to canvas.

Mr. Gentry's Artwork has been exhibited in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, Seattle, Washington and Honolulu, Hawaii.  His paintings are in numerous private collections and institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

Mr. Gentry's acceptance by the Blackfoot of Browning, Montana, was such that in 1988 the tribe's vice chairman invited him to be the official sketch artist for a four-day powwow that would recreate tribal life in the 1950's.  A 12-hour sacred Pipe Society ceremony was included in the powwow, something to which the white man was rarely, if ever, invited.  Though he was half Cherokee, the Blackfoot still considered him to be a white man, so this invitation was particularly impressive.

Though Mr. Gentry passed on in 1994, his Artwork is available in limited edition prints and in various other forms.