Pop Chalee Painting of Squirrel, Skunk and Birds [SOLD]

Special Value Offer: The consignor has suggested we reduce the price of this painting from the original price of $1500 to a new price of $1250.

Pop Chalee, or Blue Flower, was known for her whimsical interpretations of animal and forest scenes executed in bold, bright colors. She studied in the 1930s at the Santa Fe Indian School under the tutelage of Dorothy Dunn. Dunn's influence is quite apparent in her work as she created traditional two dimensional scenes of animals and everyday pueblo life. She however veered away from Dunn's more conservative interpretations of Native life with her use of color and fairytale-like creatures.

Pop Chalee was well known for her murals and was commissioned to do work for Marshall Fields in Chicago, Santa Fe Railroad Ticket Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico State Capitol Building, the Albuquerque Airport and the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. One of her most interesting works, which can still be seen today, was part of a mural commissioned by Maisel's Indian Store on Central Avenue in Albuquerque. In this piece she collaborated with other well-known artists Harrison Begay, Awa Tsireh, Joe Herrera and Pablita Velarde.

In this charming painting of forest creatures, the artist has expressed her whimsical technique. This is one of her earlier paintings before she developed her more stylized animal drawings. It is dated 1960 and signed in lower right Pop Chalee.

Recommended Reading:  The World of Flower Blue—Pop Chalee an Artistic Biography by Margaret Cesa.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from the extensive Native art collection of a resident of Idaho