This is a 7.5" x 6.5" Original and Vintage pen and ink on paper by the important Taos, NM painter Ila McAfee, 1997-1995. The image is of a Taos Indian on horseback with a colt viewing an approaching storm, titled in ink at bottom. Signed as well at bottom right. Fine condition. On back McAfee has placed her White Horse Studio banner and her address, as well as a print.
The Biography Follows:
Ila Mae McAfee was born 1897 in the small ranching community of
Sargents in southwestern Colorado near Gunnison. She died in 1995
in Pueblo, Colorado, where she moved after leaving her adobe home in
Taos, New Mexico in late summer 1993.
She was raised on her
family's ranch south of Gunnison, and attended Logan County School,
riding ten miles each way to school. In 1916, she graduated from
Gunnison High School and then spent time in Los Angeles at the West
Lake School of Art and the Haz Art School (1917-1918).
Returning
to Colorado, she studied art with Catherine and Henry Ricter at Western
State College where she earned a BA degree in 1919. The next year
she went to Chicago and became a student of muralist James E McBurney
and served as his assistant until 1924. During this time, she was
also influenced by sculptor Lorado Taft. In 1925, she attended in New
York the National Academy of Design, and 1926, the Art Students
League. She also worked as an illustrator and painter of
miniature animals during this period.
In 1926, McAfee married
Elmer Page Turner, an artist whom she had met on her parent's Colorado
ranch, and that same year she visited Taos, New Mexico. Two years
later, she and her husband settled there, and in 1929, they built the
White Horse Studio, which continued to be her residence until 1993,
when she moved to Pueblo, Colorado.
In Taos, she became known
for her pueblo paintings and her depictions of horses and other animals
as well as Native Americans, ranch scenes, and landscapes. In
1981, she was voted Taos Artist of the Year. She also worked as a
WPA artist, completing many commissions for post office locations such
as Edmond, Oklahoma, and Clifton, Texas.
As ever this is guaranteed 100% money back, to be as represented.