Avonna Lee Studio
Few artists convey light in all its moods with such dazzling articulation. Her progressions of texture and multi-layered tone are comparable to the movements of a classical concerto. Her fascination with Pueblo Indian ceremonial dress, customs, culture, and ritual dance began in the 1940's in New Mexico under the tutelage of her artist grandfather Andrew. As the wife of a United Methodist minister, she traveled the world in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, always painting new subjects, new peoples and their backgrounds. Collectors in England , Ireland , Germany and South Africa own her work. After settling in the Chicago area with her husband, and studying at the Chicago 's Art Institute, she has now come full circle with a studio in her Naperville home and a summer studio in the Brazos Mountains near Chama , New Mexico . Recently she completed a suite of seven paintings entitled "The Mysticals," commissioned by L' Artistes du Monde, a division of Lee Fry Companies, Inc. Ancestral spirit faces appear in the cloud patterns reflecting the symbolism and shapes of the high desert, rock, storms, religion, heritage and history.
As the only non-native American ever invited to participate, Avonna Lee was asked to design the 28th Anniversary Poster for BIEN MUIR Indian Market Center in Albuquerque and in Celebration of the 2003 annexation of the western face of the Sandia Mountain to the boundaries of Sandia Pueblo. Composition will include the mountains held sacred to the people of the Pueblo , the rebuilt San Antonio Mission and the buffalo herd on the Sandia Preserve. Of her work, the artist says, "I learned to paint not by sight but by faith. Faith gives you sight."
|
AVONNA LEE LANDWEHR'S paintings, whether landscapes of the American Southwest or China , are more than faithful replication of place and time. Her art incorporates the gamut of emotion, vision, and the essence of legends. Her palette consists of oil pigments mixed with passion and poetry blended with light. 
Avonna Lee's paintings are shown by appointment in her studio in The Brazos Mt. Valley , near Chama , New Mexico and in her studio in Naperville, IL. Besides several one-woman shows in the Chicago area, she was featured on CBS, Chicago and often has work at the DuPage Art Gallery in Wheaton , Illinois . 
