Original Painting of Sixteen Mystical Horses [SOLD]

Merina Lujan began life in a mining town in Utah. As a child she spent her summers at Taos Pueblo, her father’s home, where she became acquainted with Mabel Dodge Luhan who was married to her uncle Tony Luhan. She also spent time in the village of Taos where she befriended the Taos artist community, many of whom indulged the pretty young girl by allowing her to watch them paint.

She attended the Santa Fe Indian School.  As a student of Dorothy Dunn she perfected her style in which Dunn described her as “…a specialist in minutely decorative woodland scenes of delicacy and sprightliness. Her small alert animals played against a colorful, balanced pattern of leaves, stems, and flowers, as bright-feathered birds darted in and out among treetops.”

This whimsical piece of sixteen rainbow-colored horses seems to fit into Dunn’s description exactly. A herd of colorful, mystical horses fly through the air with their manes flowing and tails perched up in the air with pride. Their heads are facing in different directions as if they are communicating with each other. Two coyote appear to be chasing the horses.

Condition: original condition and framed with archival materials and museum glass

Provenance: from a family in Santa Fe

Recommended Reading:  The World of Flower Blue—Pop Chalee: An Artistic Biography by Margaret Cesa