Gray Stone Press
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| Gray Stone Press 1087 Louisville Hwy Goodlettsville, TN 37072 615.855.0505 800.251.2664 |
| LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR PRINTS |
| email inquiries to gspnash@mindspring.com |
| Long Way From Home (an original painting) by David Wright |
When David returned home in 1965, he had been awarded the Army
Commendation Medal, two Air Medals and the Vietnamese Medal of
Honor. General Westmoreland sent him a letter of commendation
thanking him for his part in a special operation while in Vietnam.
In the "Fur Trade Era" I mentioned the print "The Mountain Man" as the
start of David's trip down the road as a painter of historical subjects.
The success of "The Mountain Man" prompted Gray Stone to have
David do a drawing that we could released as a companion to it. He felt
that since "The Mountain Man" represented the western frontier, an
eastern frontiersman would make a good companion.
His drawing titled "The Long Hunter", although doing very well, did not
come close to the success of "The Mountain Man". When David's next
mountain man print, the first in full color, titled "A Way of Life", sold out
on release we decided to have a companion print for it. Again, since "A
Way of Life" depicted the western frontier we released an eastern long
hunter image entitled "The Frontiersman". Although Gray Stone sold the
print out on release, our dealers had trouble selling it. It seemed there
was very little interest in the eastern frontier and it would be twelve years
before Gray Stone released another eastern frontier print.
They say that hind sight is twenty-twenty and looking back, there were
four very good reasons why the western frontier was much more
interesting to the public than the eastern frontier. Four movies "A Man
Called Horse" (1970), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "The Mountain Men"
(1980) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990) kept mountain men and
western Indians on the public's mind. This changed in 1992 when the
remake of "Last of the Mohicans" hit theaters across the country.
In 1991 David received a phone call from a gentleman with the
production company that made the movie. He wanted to offer David a
job working on the project. At that time David was already committed to
another project and told the man he couldn't accept the offer. The
gentleman explained to David that they intended this to be the most
authentic historical film ever made. He went on to explain that in the
opening scene Daniel Day Lewis, who played The Pathfinder, was to
shoot a running elk in the woods at 600 yards. David explained that
there were two very good reasons not to do that. First it would be next
to impossible to shoot a standing elk in a field at 600 yards with a long
rifle. There were a couple of documented claims of shooting an elk
standing in a field at 300 yards but 600 would have been out of the
question. Second, in the eastern woods you wouldn't even have been
able to see an elk running at six hundred yards. David said that the
conversation ended very rapidly after he said that. However, when the
movie came out, David noticed they had shortened the distance
tremendously.
This wasn't the first time David had been called to work on a movie. In
1979 the studio that was going to produce the movie "The Mountain
Men", contacted him about two things. First, they wanted his permission
to copy the outfit they had seen in his print "The Mountain Man" and
second, wanted to hire him to design the clothes for the men in the film.
Again, David couldn't accept their offer but did recommend a friend that
they hired. When the picture was released, Charlton Heston's outfit was
very similar to the one in David's print "The Mountain Man".
Commendation Medal, two Air Medals and the Vietnamese Medal of
Honor. General Westmoreland sent him a letter of commendation
thanking him for his part in a special operation while in Vietnam.
In the "Fur Trade Era" I mentioned the print "The Mountain Man" as the
start of David's trip down the road as a painter of historical subjects.
The success of "The Mountain Man" prompted Gray Stone to have
David do a drawing that we could released as a companion to it. He felt
that since "The Mountain Man" represented the western frontier, an
eastern frontiersman would make a good companion.
His drawing titled "The Long Hunter", although doing very well, did not
come close to the success of "The Mountain Man". When David's next
mountain man print, the first in full color, titled "A Way of Life", sold out
on release we decided to have a companion print for it. Again, since "A
Way of Life" depicted the western frontier we released an eastern long
hunter image entitled "The Frontiersman". Although Gray Stone sold the
print out on release, our dealers had trouble selling it. It seemed there
was very little interest in the eastern frontier and it would be twelve years
before Gray Stone released another eastern frontier print.
They say that hind sight is twenty-twenty and looking back, there were
four very good reasons why the western frontier was much more
interesting to the public than the eastern frontier. Four movies "A Man
Called Horse" (1970), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "The Mountain Men"
(1980) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990) kept mountain men and
western Indians on the public's mind. This changed in 1992 when the
remake of "Last of the Mohicans" hit theaters across the country.
In 1991 David received a phone call from a gentleman with the
production company that made the movie. He wanted to offer David a
job working on the project. At that time David was already committed to
another project and told the man he couldn't accept the offer. The
gentleman explained to David that they intended this to be the most
authentic historical film ever made. He went on to explain that in the
opening scene Daniel Day Lewis, who played The Pathfinder, was to
shoot a running elk in the woods at 600 yards. David explained that
there were two very good reasons not to do that. First it would be next
to impossible to shoot a standing elk in a field at 600 yards with a long
rifle. There were a couple of documented claims of shooting an elk
standing in a field at 300 yards but 600 would have been out of the
question. Second, in the eastern woods you wouldn't even have been
able to see an elk running at six hundred yards. David said that the
conversation ended very rapidly after he said that. However, when the
movie came out, David noticed they had shortened the distance
tremendously.
This wasn't the first time David had been called to work on a movie. In
1979 the studio that was going to produce the movie "The Mountain
Men", contacted him about two things. First, they wanted his permission
to copy the outfit they had seen in his print "The Mountain Man" and
second, wanted to hire him to design the clothes for the men in the film.
Again, David couldn't accept their offer but did recommend a friend that
they hired. When the picture was released, Charlton Heston's outfit was
very similar to the one in David's print "The Mountain Man".
The Frontiersman