James Hutchinson was friendly with his brother-in-law, the supreme regionalist A.E. Backus. Both artists lived in Martin and St. Lucie counties where their impressionistic interpretations of the coast region’s natural beauty defined the pristine, paradisiacal state. Hutchinson’s was drawn to live amongst Florida's indigenous peoples. Then, in the mid 1960s, Seminole Indians had not engaged with the outside society. Hutchinson and his wife Joan moved onto the Brighton Reservation by Lake Okeechobee to be immersed with Seminole culture. The couple remained for six years. He was the first to paint tribal elders in remote encampments in the Everglades and the tribes’ traditional culture prior to its endings. Similarly, Hutchinson captured a raw and rugged Florida before development would forever alter the land.