Elsie Benally: Spotted Pony with a Small Woman Rider
A Mud Toy by Navajo artist Elsie Benally, featuring a blue skirted and velvet shirted woman on a white pony with black spots on its rump. The little rider can be removed revealing a soft painted brown Spanish saddle. The pony and rider both have turquoise chips for eyes; the pony’s mane and tail and the woman’s hair seem to be made of sheep’s wool, 1980s - 1990s, clay, paint, wool, turquoise, string, fabric scraps, 2 x 3 ¼ x 2 ¼ 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.
A Mud Toy by Navajo artist Elsie Benally, featuring a blue skirted and velvet shirted woman on a white pony with black spots on its rump. The little rider can be removed revealing a soft painted brown Spanish saddle. The pony and rider both have turquoise chips for eyes; the pony’s mane and tail and the woman’s hair seem to be made of sheep’s wool, 1980s - 1990s, clay, paint, wool, turquoise, string, fabric scraps, 2 x 3 ¼ x 2 ¼ 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.
A Mud Toy by Navajo artist Elsie Benally, featuring a blue skirted and velvet shirted woman on a white pony with black spots on its rump. The little rider can be removed revealing a soft painted brown Spanish saddle. The pony and rider both have turquoise chips for eyes; the pony’s mane and tail and the woman’s hair seem to be made of sheep’s wool, 1980s - 1990s, clay, paint, wool, turquoise, string, fabric scraps, 2 x 3 ¼ x 2 ¼ 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.