Mineral Earth Painting “Clowns of Taos” [SOLD]

Pablita Velarde was one of the early 20th-century dedicated painters who went beyond the necessary chores to produce her art.  She could easily have purchased commercial paints for her paintings but she chose instead to laboriously make her own paints.  She would select mineral objects and grind them to a fine powder on a metate using a mano—a process usually reserved for grinding corn.  She stored the colored powders in jars until ready to paint at which time she would combine the pigment with water and glue and then paint with paintbrushes.

She first drew her designs on a masonite panel that was treated with a coat of pumice. She then used her ground-up minerals as paint to fill in the areas she had drawn.  She would paint each color up to seven layers to gain the desired consistency, and then would outline the images, once again as many as seven or so times, to insure they were strong black.

This mineral earth pigment painting is an illustration of the Koshare clowns at Taos Pueblo climbing the pole to get to the treasures at the top.  This is an event undertaken every year on the pueblo’s feast day as well as at other times, particularly at the Christmas season.

Condition: very good condition. No obvious problems.  Framed in original frame.

Provenance:  from the estate of the Balcomb family, owners of several art galleries, the last one of which was closed in 1976.  The state has now been settled and this painting if from one of the heirs.