Portrait of a Navajo woman by master artist Aaron Freeland. This is an original 12” x 16” oil painting.
Navajo artist Aaron Freeland was born into the Bitannii Clan and the Tobaazhni Clan in Rehoboth Mission, New Mexico in 1956. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe 1973-1976. Aaron is known for both his oil paintings and graphics. His work is represented in major collections throughout America.
About the artist
Aaron Freeland
Navajo artist Aaron Freeland was born into the Bitannii Clan and the Tobaazhni Clan in Rehoboth Mission, New Mexico in 1956. As with so many native artists before him, he attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe 1973-1976. In 1973 Aaron began studies at the Institute of American Indian Artists where he studied under Allen Houser, Doug Hyde and other important twentieth century artists. Aaron is known for both his oil paintings and graphics. His work is represented in major collections throughout America.
Aaron Freeland is an award-winning Dine’ (Navajo) artist from Farmington, New Mexico and one of the best pastel artists in the Native American art scene. He produces works in oil (on canvas), monotype, and pastel as well as monotype with hand applied colored chalk and opaque watercolor. Aaron's signature works are oils and pastels painted on black paper, specifically portraying truth through his portraits.
He has been collaborating with master printer Michael Costello at Hand Graphics in Santa Fe, New Mexico for over 20 years. Hand Graphics is the most comprehensive, privately owned printmaking atelier in the Southwest.
“His bold, expressionistic portraits incorporate vivid colors and the immediacy of up-close faces.” (Native Treasures, www.nativetreasures.org, May 2011).
Douglas Miles (Apache Skateboards) said of Freeland’s artwork, “Freeland is one of my FAVE artists who moves the pastels like Paul Gaugin in Tahitian fever mode...”.
Along with Hand Graphics, Aaron has a long-standing relationship with his gallerists, one in Los Angeles and the other in New York. This has allowed him to retain his focus on what he does best, paint.
"From within its covers (of Art in America Magazine), laced between the pages, he pulled about ten 4 x 5inch portraits of Indian faces executed in oil pastels, overlaid with color patches in distinct forms.
The colors were ones that Gaugin had used—orange beside purple beside apple green, varieties of yellow, cerulean blue and black. Great colors. The portraits were all somber, but the color forms atop the formal structure created both tension and mystery," wrote Marilyn Pink, the L.A. gallery owner, and friend of the artist, as she recalls her initial impression of a young Aaron Freeland, and her personal introduction to his talent.
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"From within its covers (of Art in America Magazine), laced between the pages, he pulled about ten 4 x 5inch portraits of Indian faces executed in oil pastels, overlaid with color patches in distinct forms.
The colors were ones that Gaugin had used—orange beside purple beside apple green, varieties of yellow, cerulean blue and black. Great colors. The portraits were all somber, but the color forms atop the formal structure created both tension and mystery," wrote Marilyn Pink, the L.A. gallery owner, and friend of the artist, as she recalls her initial impression of a young Aaron Freeland, and her personal introduction to his talent.
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