Adobe Gallery Blog

Abel Sanchez, or Oqwa Pi, as he was known in his Native language, had very little art instruction except for a few classes he took at the Santa Fe Indian School.

Clara Lee Tanner in her book, Southwest Indian Painting: a Changing Art, says that Sanchez was noted in history for preserving and carrying on "many of the trends that might be thought of as 'native,' inasmuch as they were developed by Indians without any instruction."

Characteristic of Oqwa Pi's style, there were no backgrounds, foregrounds, or ground lines, and he painted heads that were disproportionate to their bodies. The latter fact alone makes his art primitive, charming and true to the folk art style.