Artist - Jose Encarnacion Pena

Shiprock Trading Company is pleased to offer the largest group of Jose Encarnacion Penas (Soqween Frost on the Mountain, 1902-1979) paintings ever shown in New Mexico. Collected from the artist, this group represents his stylized and decorative depictions of various public ceremonies from the San Ildefonso Pueblo. As a student under Dorothy Dunn at the Indian School, Pena learned his expressive drawing method that projects an emotional quality into each individual dancer. Every semi naturalistic dance figure has a personality of its own. By varying the mixtures of paint and pressures of his brush, he developed an uneven and textured quality with each stroke. His subjects include birds, especially turkeys, and ceremonies in which he appeared as a Koshare at his pueblo. After his initial studies and early works, Pena worked for many years on his family farm, before entering a brief prolific flourish prior to his passing. Most paintings by the artist belong to institutions and collections including the Denver Art Museum, making this offering of twenty paintings a unique event. His delicacy of style in painting dancers, with one foot slightly raised typical of a pueblo dancer, shows movement in this two dimensional style.