Pablita Velarde

Pablita Velarde (1918–2006) was born at Santa Clara Pueblo and educated at the Santa Fe Indian School, where she studied under Dorothy Dunn. She became one of the first Native American women to achieve national recognition as a fine arts painter, and the first woman of the Santa Clara Pueblo to earn a living as a professional artist. Working in egg tempera and casein, Velarde spent decades researching and documenting Pueblo ceremonies, cosmology, and daily life, producing paintings of both anthropological precision and genuine artistic beauty. She ground her own mineral pigments and mixed her own paints, a practice she connected explicitly to Pueblo tradition. Her daughter Helen Hardin became a celebrated artist in her own right, and R.C. Gorman's early development was shaped by his time at the Indian School under her influence. Velarde received the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Heard Museum.