This little painting was inspired by the inlaid stone and sterling silver jewelry created by Zuni craftsmen. It is a favorite motif of mine, and so I felt compelled to make a small, detailed painting to pay tribute to this enduring design that has been very popular since around the 1920’s; there is even a shop off the Santa Fe Plaza called The Rainbow Man (also one of my favorites)!

This little painting may be shipped or picked up at my Santa Fe studio.

The painting measures 5.25” wide x 6.25” tall. It is painted in Gouache (a type of opaque watercolor) on textured, archival watercolor paper. It is framed in a vintage silver-toned distressed wood frame with a plexiglas face. I painted this around 2011, and signed it in pencil on the lower left.

“The Rainbow Man, also sometimes referred to as the Rainbow Dancer, is a sacred Zuni Indian guardian spirit identified with the life giving summer rains and the colors of the rainbow after the summer’s rain.

Although the Rainbow figure is not a Kachina, he is very important in Zuni traditions, culture and society. The Rainbow Man is a symbol of protection often seen on the Zuni’s war shields and is a symbol of the rainbow which represents the life sustaining rains for their agricultural importance in the arid American Southwest.

The Rainbow Man was one of the first figures used in traditional Zuni mosaic inlay jewelry. Various Zuni Indian artists started creating mosaic inlay jewelry featuring the Rainbow Man in the 1920’s to the 1940’s and becoming popular by the 1950’s. “