PABLITA VELARDE
— SOLD —
Rewarding the Children
Untitled (Basket Dance)
Untitled (Coyote Baying at the Moon)
- PABLITA VELARDE (TSE TSAN) -
Santa Clara Pueblo, 1918-2006
Velarde's early paintings were exclusively watercolors, but later in life she learned how to prepare paints from natural pigments using a process similar to, but not the same as fresco secco. She used these paints to produce what she called "earth paintings". She obtained pigments from minerals and rocks, which she ground on a metate and mano until the result was a powdery substance from which she made her paints.
In 1939, Velarde was commissioned by the National Park Service, under a grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), to depict scenes of traditional Pueblo life for visitors to the Bandelier National Monument. Following her work at Bandelier, Velarde went on to become one of the most accomplished Native American painters of her generation, with solo exhibitions throughout the United States, including in her native New Mexico, as well as in Florida and California. Her mural commissions were funded by the WPA.