Taking Aim - Crow

Fine art LIMITED EDITION signed giclee - prices start at $85

Each numbered print comes with a certificate of authenticity in your choice of high-quality watercolor paper or canvas. Paper prints are shipped rolled. Canvas prints have two finishing options: 1) Shipped rolled in a tube or 2) stretched and ready-to-hang with a gallery wrap finish. Your print will be shipped within 10 business days of purchase. Embellished giclees are only available as canvas, stretched, and ready-to-hang and take 8 to 10 weeks to complete. Read more about embellished giclees here.

Do you have questions about Taking Aim?

Please contact me at James Ayers studios with any questions you might have.

More about Taking Aim

Man and horse trust one another to complete a vital task: the acquisition of food for the tribe.

Taking Aim takes place in the High Plains where game was to be had--if you had the skill to take it down. The hunter is charging at full gallop, aiming his bow. Not only was aiming while moving difficult, but the rider must also steer his horse with his legs to follow the target. Both the horse and the hunter would need to trust and be confident in one another in order for the game to be brought down. 

While I had envisioned this scene to be about a hunter taking down prey, one could also imagine it to be an engagement with a foe. Charging head first into an enemy, let alone a buffalo, would require great bravery from both horse and horseman. Either way, the high level of equestrian skill is evident in the hunter's focus on his target. 

The hunter has war paint on his brow with eagle and hawk feathers in his hair. These feathers are meant to impart the predatory skills of these birds to the warrior; he must use their strengths if he is to succeed in taking down his prey. His bow and quiver are adorned with green trade cloth, beads, and medicine bundles. These bundles would contain prayer items and tobacco, among other things, to help aid the hunter in his task. His earrings are dentalium shell and his hair tied in a top knot.

The horse has coup feathers in his mane, indicating instances in which the horse was brave in the face of danger.