Diné (Navajo) Painting of Two Turkeys [SOLD]

Yazz had an expert eye for color and he illustrated it to the fullest in this painting of two wild turkeys. The colors of the bodies of the turkeys are almost luminescent and contrast beautifully with the brilliant orange of the heads and necks. Just a small amount of leafless trees in the background provide for depth and the branches hanging from the upper edge of the painting add delicacy to the overall effect.

Yazz was born around 1928 and became enchanted with drawing and painting at a very early age. There were no other Navajo artists doing such at that time. None was making a living from being artists and easel art was virtually unknown to the very isolated Indians on the Navajo Reservation. Yazz may be the first Navajo to earn a living on the Reservation as a painter of art. The painting is on artist board and is double matted but not framed. It is shrink-wrapped. Examination of the image through the shrink-wrap does not reveal any damage. It appears to be in very good condition.

More information: the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which was domesticated from the South Mexican subspecies of the Wild Turkey. Adult Wild Turkeys have long reddish-yellow to greyish-green legs and a black body. Males have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. The head has fleshy growths called caruncles. When males are excited, a fleshy flap on the bill expands, and this, the wattles and the bare skin of the head and neck all become engorged with blood, almost concealing the eyes and bill. The long fleshy object over a males beak is called a snood. When excited, a male turkey's head turns blue, when ready to fight it turns red. Each foot has three toes, and males have a spur behind each of their lower legs. Turkeys have a long, dark, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings. As with many other species of the Galliformes, turkeys exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. The male is substantially larger than the female, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze, and gold iridescence. Female feathers are duller overall, in shades of brown and gray. Parasites can dull coloration of both sexes; in males, coloration may serve as a signal of health. The primary wing feathers have white bars. Turkeys have 5000 to 6000 feathers. Tail feathers have the same length in adults, different lengths in juveniles. Males typically have a "beard", a tuft of coarse hair (modified feathers) growing from the center of the breast. Beards average 9 inches (230 mm) in length. In some populations, 10 to 20 percent of females have a beard, usually shorter and thinner than that of the male. The adult male normally weighs from 5 to 11 kg (11-24 lbs) and measures 100-125 cm (39-49 in). The adult female is typically much smaller at 3 to 5.4 kg (6.6-12 lbs) and are 76 to 95 cm (30-37 in) long. The wingspan ranges from 1.25 to 1.44 m (49-57 in). The record-sized adult male Wild Turkey, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation, was 38 lb (17.2 kg). (source: Wikipedia)