Two girls, identified in the title as sisters, sit outdoors in a sunlit community setting painted with thick, energetic brushstrokes and vivid color. The girl at right is nearest us, seated upright and turned slightly toward us. She has medium-brown skin, dark hair parted in the center and tied back, and a calm, steady expression. She wears a saturated blue-turquoise blouse and a yellow-orange skirt, her hands gathered in her lap. Beside her, the second girl turns inward in profile, smiling softly and looking down. She wears a bright rose-pink blouse and a lavender-purple skirt. Behind them, a loom spans the left side of the scene; other figures sit nearby, and horses appear at the right edge. Pale sandy ground, lilac shadows, and a bright blue sky create a dry, open atmosphere of everyday life, work, and kinship. The title preserves period catalog language (“Navajo”) and appears to pair a general title with a quoted identifying phrase naming the sitters as “two sisters.” Today, many people prefer Diné, the people’s own name, and the painting can be read with that respect in mind while retaining the museum’s recorded title. Ellis gives the girls individuality through expression, posture, and color contrast rather than treating them as anonymous “types.” Painted in 1957, this work comes late in Fremont F. Ellis’s career, after his long involvement in the Santa Fe art world and his association with Los Cinco Pintores. His handling here remains representational but animated by modern color relationships and brisk, visible paint. The painting also carries the civic history of its collection: gifted by the Springville High School Senior Class in 1958, it reflects Springville’s distinctive student-led collecting tradition and the role of local public institutions in shaping how regional and Southwestern art was seen and valued.

“Navajo Girls” / “Naki Deezht two sisters Navajo” by Fremont F. Ellis (American) - Oil on canvas / 1957 - Springville Museum of Art (Springville, Utah) #WomenInArt #FremontEllis #Ellis #SpringvilleMuseumOfArt #PortraitOfWomen #SouthwesternArt #Diné #art #artText #artwork #AmericanArt #AmericanArtist

Interior courtyard at the Springville Museum of Art, Springville, UT. A5, watercolor.

#usk #springvillemuseumofart #watercolor

A close, chest-up portrait of a young Indigenous girl (likely of the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico) fills the scene, her face turned toward us with a steady, quiet gaze. Her skin is warm medium-brown, softly modeled with blended browns, rose, and amber highlights. Dark hair frames her forehead and temples, partially tucked beneath a deep violet headscarf that wraps around her shoulders in broad, blocky strokes. The paint surface shows the drag of a brush with layered, scumbled passages that leave the texture of the board and earlier colors visible, especially in the purple folds. Her features are rendered with tenderness rather than sharp outlines including dark brows, heavy-lidded eyes, a straight nose, and softly closed lips that catch a small glint of light. Behind her, the background drops into near-black, broken by a few bright, scraped streaks at upper right that feel like reflected daylight, pushing her warm face forward in contrast. Russian-born American artist Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin's (Николай Иванович Фешин) handling turns portraiture into atmosphere because the young woman feels present not through detail, but through weight, tone, and the patience of looking. Painted around the mid-1930s, after Fechin’s move from Russia to the United States and his years working in Taos, this image fits within a long history of non-Native artists depicting Indigenous and Native people. The title points broadly to Taos, but the sitter’s specific name and community are not given here. Holding that “unknown” matters, because anonymity has often been part of how Indigenous subjects were collected and framed. Even so, the painting resists spectacle so the composition centers dignity and interiority, letting the purple wrap read like both warmth and protection, and making the act of attention be calm, unhurried, and human.

"Taos Indian Girl" by Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin (Russian-American) - Oil on board / c. 1935 - Springville Museum of Art (Springville, Utah) #WomenInArt #NicolaiIvanovichFechin #НиколайИвановичФешин #Fechin #SpringvilleMuseumofArt #PortraitofaGirl #artText #art #Taos #IndigenousPortrait #AmericanArt

A young woman, identified by the title as Navajo (Diné), reclines on a sandy-brown ground. Her medium-brown skin is softly modeled and her dark, wavy hair frames a calm, slightly guarded face as her eyes look out with a steady, yet almost tired dignity. She wears a saturated cobalt-blue dress with embroidered cuffs and a red woven belt, paired with pale leggings and brown shoes. Silver earrings and turquoise necklace, bracelet, and rings catch the light where her hands rest together at her knee. Behind her, a large coiled basket and a painted clay jar sit nearby with geometric designs that echo the curve of her pose. American artist Lou Jene M. Carter positions the sitter between presence and paraphernalia, but she refuses a postcard smile. Instead, her gaze is direct, and the pose is unromantic, almost protective. The basket and pot suggest cultural continuity of objects made through knowledge passed hand to hand; however, the composition also insists on what cannot be reduced to “heritage.” Blue dominates, turning clothing into atmosphere and turquoise becomes a counterpoint with sparks of color that sit close to the body like self-chosen adornment. Carter was born in Payson, Utah in 1933 and later based in Springville. She long supported the Springville Museum of Art as a volunteer and board member. In 1982, when she was in her late forties, she uses pastel’s velvety surface to slow time as edges soften, and the figure seems to breathe. Because the title names the Navajo people, responsible viewership by us means holding two truths at once: this is a carefully rendered individual, and it is also a depiction shaped by an outsider’s lens. The work tries to nudge us from possession to relationship by seeking personhood in the sitter’s expression, and remembering that living cultures are not props. As Carter said of her practice, she “channeled her love of all things beautiful into her art,” and here beauty is in some ways inseparable from respect.

“Navajo Girl” by Lou Jene M. Carter (American) - Pastel / 1982 - Springville Museum of Art (Utah) #WomenInArt #LouJeneCarter #Carter #LouJeneMountfordCarter #AmericanArtist #SpringvilleMuseumofArt #artText #pastel #art #SouthwesternArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #SMoFA #WomenPaintingWomen

Lady Godiva is off to Springville Museum for judgement ❤️

#Springvillemuseumofart

A cartoonish pale woman seated in a diner booth appears to be in her 30s or 40s with a distinctive large, wavy, fire red, voluminous bouffant hairdo in the shape of a soft-serve ice cream cone. Her focus and face are looking down as she leans towards a blue plate overflowing with french fries next to two dipping sauces. Five more dipping sauces await on the table just to the left of the plate. She wears a light blue denim-style jacket with a white brooch on the right shoulder. Her gaze is hidden by two dark sunglasses with plastic white frames, but it is clear she intends to not be restrained from eating more fries today. The “Beehive Lady” is a recurring theme in Stephanie Deer’s artwork. Deer has said her red-headed, fry sauce-loving character was inspired by “proud...Utah women [who] loved their families, careers, aprons, road shows, and the occasional warm meal.” The Utah native is a self-taught artist who uses her work to depict the unique culture and sometimes quirky people of the Beehive State. Deer learned to paint out of necessity while working as an interior designer. When a commissioned artist quit in the middle of an interior design project, Stephanie solved the problem by picking up a paintbrush and finishing the job herself. She has been painting ever since evolving over time through a process of trial and error.

"Sometimes less is more...But not today" by Stephanie Deer (American) - Mixed media / 2010 - Springville Museum of Art (Utah) #womeninart #art #contemporaryart #SpringvilleMuseumofArt #artwork #painting #womanartist #womensart #portraitofawoman #beehive #frenchfries #StephanieDeer #femaleartist