Original Painting Titled The Clay Bowls [SOLD]

“Dave Powell is a native son of Montana, in a world of change and transition; few can say they have roots in a single geography that go back four generations. Dave's pedigree in art is just about as deep.  He is the son of artists Ace Powell and Nancy McLaughlin Powell. That heritage leads back to the likes of Charlie Russell and Joe De Young, both famous for their abilities to ‘tell the story’ through their art.  His father, Ace Powell, was a prolific Western artist whose first childhood paint-box set was a gift from Charlie and Nancy Russell.

“Dave became a serious student of art in his mid-teens, and has been a professional artist most of his adult life.  Over the years he has worked with Bob Scriver, Ned Jacob and Robert Lougheed. Dave will be the first to give thanks and credit to CAA founder Joe Beeler for his longstanding friendship and guidance over many years.  Because of his vast knowledge of the dress and habits of Western Indians, pioneers and cowboys, Dave is often called upon to provide costumes and props, and to give technical advice about authenticity for films and television.  Productions he has worked on include Good Old Boys, Silverado, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams and Lonesome Dove.

“His interests in historic reenactments and rides have taken him all across the West, and these travels have afforded Dave the opportunity for inspiration.  While his film work utilizes his experience and observation, his sculptures, paintings and illustrations are born of his imagination.

“Dave and his family now reside in central Montana, just a short drive from Charlie Russell's home in Great Falls.  There he is constantly inspired by the very buttes and prairies that Russell himself loved and painted.” askART.com

This painting is a departure from traditional subject matter for Dave Powell.  He traditionally paints cowboy western scenes and scenes of Plains Indian life, not pueblo scenes.  Here he illustrates a pueblo man wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by Acoma polychrome water jars on his left and unpainted storage jars behind him.  In a nicho in the wall is a bulto of a saint.

One traditionally associates pueblo men wrapped in white blankets as being native to Taos Pueblo, not Acoma Pueblo.  Tradition also is that women go to the source of water to fill their jars. One wonders why the jars are sitting outside in the open and with a male standing by.  The bulto in the nicho is not something traditionally seen on an outside wall at a pueblo house. There seem to be several contradictions in the painting, yet it is stunningly exciting, perhaps because it combines elements so familiar to the cultures of New Mexico.

A recent review of 157 of his paintings did not reveal another painting related to pueblo lifeways.  This painting is signed in lower left but not dated.

Condition: this Original Painting Titled The Clay Bowls is in original condition

Provenance: from the estate of a gentleman from New York who amassed a large collection of Native and Western art.

Recommended Reading: Samuels, Peggy and Harold.  Contemporary Western Artists, 1982