Heritage - The paintings of Charles Lee — Still Life Artistry

A Navajo Man and woman ride together in their traditional clothes

Two prong horns graze on a high New Mexico plain.

Circa 1982. Two impressive mule deer stand on the foothills of Lukachukai Mountain looking across Red Valley and toward the distant San Juan Mountains of Colorado. This landscape was a familiar sight to Charles lee, who grew up herding sheep up and

A perfect example of his deep love of horses.

Foal and Télii inspect each other in front of a stylized pinon treetree, pinon tree, . This piece is a great example of Charles’ subtle humor

A Navajo hunter inspects the kill he has made- a large pronghorn. The background landscape is easily that of red valley or a nearby region in Arizona as evidenced by the small mesas and scrubby grasses of that region.

From 1995, this gorgeous dapple horse gives a hint to the vast variety of wild horses to be found on the Navajo Reservation.

Though buffalo no longer grace the four corners landscape, this painting hearkens back to a bygone era. The yellow clusters are likely either rabbit brush or stylized clumps of grass, so familiar to the high desert. 1995

This young Navajo teenager rides his Télii across the wide expansive desert. This painting likely takes place in the late summer, because of the tall thunderclouds forming in the background. 1990

No one loved Elk quite like Charles Lee, who frequently vacationed in Southern Colorado. 1990

This painting expresses the Navajo dependence on donkeys in their everyday life. The rabbit brush, sage, and hoodo in the background place it in the region of the Bisti Badlands. Observe the parallelism in this painting as the older sister takes car

Wearing his turquoise and silver, this young Navajo man is likely going to an important function or headed to town. Probably riding atop a Ganado blanket, you can see his velvet shirt, leather moccasins, and a full set of jewelry, completing the tra

This Navajo man rides atop a marvelous horse, as he beats a drum. As Charles Lee was a Christian minister, it is unlikely the drum depicts anything overtly religious. Of note is the drumstick, which is crafted from a green stick and curved in a loop

This painting of a mule deer is made in Charles Lee’s older style (which was heavily influenced by Harrison Begay), where the colors are more muted and the plant life is highly stylized. If we take his birth year as 1926, he was 26 when this was pai

These buffalo prowl the high deserts of the four corners area among the pinon trees and yucca plants. While buffalo no longer roam these parts, they remained a favorite subject matter 1969

At first glance a seemingly serene painting shows a family of buffalo grazing in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks. However, a keen observer will discover a pair of coyotes waiting to ambush these buffalo. This painting is another example of Ch

A juvenile donkey plods softly through the shifty sands of the high desert. The clouds fade across the sky in a way that points to the cold of winter or spring. This painting is still highly stylized, but has morphed some from the monochromatic pain

These horses graze in a lush field with soft purple mountains in the background. This is a unique painting for while certainly displays the recognizable strokes of Charles Lee, the setting does not contain anything that identifies it as being distin

This painting is simple in its composition and yet it still has a lot to show- from the powerful stance to the bold bay coat. The strokes in the mane and tail are immediately recognizable as that of Charles Lee. These same fluid lines can be found i

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