Adobe Gallery Blog
Original Navajo Painting of Three Hunters by Beatien Yazz - C3834A
Jimmy Toddy was essentially a self-taught artist, his only early instructions being from the Lippincotts of Wide Ruins Trading Post where he spent most of his time as a child. The Lippincotts were not trained in art instruction but their comments to him were beneficial. After the end of World War II, there was a movement among some Native American artists to develop a more realistic approach to art than that taught atThe Studio of the Santa Fe Indian School. Paintings in this style were more illustrative and explicit in details of realistic life.
In this large painting, the artist focuses our attention on the three Indians on horseback. Other than the ground plane and a couple of birds flying overhead, there are no other objects to divert one's attention. Each of the three young men is dressed in traditional Navajo clothing, wearing moccasins and headbands, and carrying either a sheathed gun or a spear. They are out for a hunt but are talking and laying their plans before departing for the hunt.