Untitled Navajo Homestead and Family [SOLD]

The painting style of Calvin Toddy and his brothers could not be more different than that of their famous father, Beatien Yazz. Whereas Beatien painted in the early 20th century Santa Fe Indian School style, Calvin paints more in the European art style. His paintings are absolutely of the finest detail imaginable. His brush stroke is sure and firm. The landscape is presented in a scale that relates its massiveness to the humans and their manmade territory.  To paint in such detail is beyond comprehension.

The Navajo families living in the bottom of Canyon de Chelly co-exist with the landscape and appear to not deface or defile it.  They make their little homestead and live within its unmarked boundaries.  The Canyon de Chelly walls protect them, the runoff provides water for crops and for drinking, and the soil is rich enough to grow corn and feed their sheep.  It is an ancestral home to them for at least the last 200 years.

Calvin Toddy and his family live on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, Arizona. Chinle is on the edge of Canyon de Chelly and is the closest town to the Canyon.  He is a silversmith as well as a painter and works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, silver and gemstone. He has been a constant award winner at the Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial since 1985. He was selected as the poster artist for that organization for the year 1995.

The painting is signed in lower right c. toddy with a copyright symbol and his feather hallmark.  It is matted and framed with museum-quality materials.  There is no date affixed to the painting.

Condition: appears to be in original condition but has not been examined out of the frame.

Provenance: from the personal collection of a gentleman from Oklahoma

Recommended Reading: Enduring Traditions: Art of the Navajo, by Jacka and Jacka