Elsie Benally, Horse and Rider with a Little Lamb

A Mud Toy by Navajo artist Elsie Benally, featuring a Navajo cowboy riding a light cremelo pony. The man is wearing a red shirt, a a big gray hat, a turquoise necklace, bracelets, and poncho belt. He holds a tiny black lamb in his arms. 1980s - 1990s, clay, paint, wool and fabric, 2 ½ x 6 x 5 inches.

Mud Toys, sunbaked clay figures decorated with paint, fabric scraps, and wool, are an art form revived by Elsie Benally and Mamie Deschellie in the 1980s in Farmington New Mexico. on the edge of the Navajo Reservation. Elsie’s figures often depict animals wrapped in homespun wool, with sweet whimsical faces, or horses or circus animals ridden by Navajos decked out in fine clothing, and sometimes riding double with children or small animals. This small sculpture is well formed, with sweet painted detail, and is a bit larger than many other of Elsie’s pieces.