Trading with the Blackfeet, Montana Territory, 1860, oil, 12 x 19 in.

“These works, some newly painted and others revisited over the years, provide a rare glimpse into the artist’s process and the foundation of his larger canvases,” gallery owner Brad Richardson says. “Each painting carries a story that unfolds through composition, value and color. These studies are not mere preliminaries, they are complete works that reveal Liang’s pursuit of visual storytelling…At the core of Liang’s art is the desire to tell stories that touch the heart without words. His dedication to research—immersing himself in books, museums and conversations with Native friends and scholars—forms the bedrock of each composition. He often notes that a single sentence from an oral history can spark the vision for an entire canvas.”

Joe Kipp Trader Missouri River, 1879, oil, 14 x 21 ½ in.

The gallery notes that many of the works “resonate with humanity and depth.” Those qualities can be seen in works such as Joe Kipp Trader Missouri River, 1879 and Trading with the Blackfeet, Montana Territory, 1860, which shows a bustling trading scene with dozens of figures. Liang’s complex composition rewards deeper examination if viewers start following the eyelines of the subjects. Additionally, a rifle, tree limbs, an open blanket and a dog’s back create diagonal lines that add to Liang’s delicate arrangement. He points out the far right side of the painting, where a young girl helps an elderly woman who wishes to come see the commotion of the traders. In another part of the painting, a Native American man seated next to a pile of red blankets stares fondly at a seated woman in the foreground. “The young man is looking at a woman, the most beautiful woman in the tribe,” he says. “I like to create these stories in the paintings.”

Memorial to Chief Red Crow, oil, 15 x 19 in.

When it comes to his process, Liang says that these color studies are an important part of his studio. “Most of my paintings are done in four or five steps. I usually find a paintable story from a book or history, and once I get the story and imagine how it would work, I do a rough version and then do the modeling. I come back to my studio and do a more detailed drawing and then a color study, which is what you see here,” he says. “This is all to serve the final big painting. The color study gives me a chance to create the power of the painting. And the color allows me to make it stronger. I like working in saturated color, which allows me to make a focal point that I can give more attention if I want to.”

Riding Hard to Reclaim Their Land, oil, 12 x 18 in.

Other works in the show include Memorial to Chief Red Crow, showing a grouping of men sitting on a hide near a buffalo skull; Riding Hard to Reclaim Their Land, showing a group of riders in a brushy landscape; and Tales of Counting Coup, which features a circular composition that allows each figure prominence in the circle.