Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
John Singer Sargent

The past year I’ve been working on a series of illustrations for Impossible Dreams Publishing’s forthcoming book about the history of New Mexico. Titled, New Mexico: its History, Legends and Icons, it’s been a great opportunity to paint a variety of subjects and scenes including this portrait of Pueblo leader PoPay.

PoPay was a Peublo medicine man and leader who after being imprisoned by the Spanish for practicing sorcery, led the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The goal was to drive the Spanish out of Pueblo land and preserve the traditions and way of life the Spanish sought to eradicate. In order to coordinate the timing of the revolt among several settlements, PoPay sent out runners, each bearing a rope with a series of five knots to give to that particular settlements leader. A knot on the rope would be untied every day until the morning the 5th knot was reached signaling the time was right for the revolt to begin. Fearing the plans for the revolt had been compromised, the action began sooner than expected, however, the revolt succeeded and the Spanish were driven out of Pueblo territory for a period of time The Spanish did reassert their dominance over the Pueblo in the coming years but this time they allowed the culture of the native Americans to remain intact.

No one knows what PoPay actually looked like of course, which means that a likeness of PoPay is not the goal with a portrait like this. Instead I was attempting to capture the nature of the man, an attitude of proud defiance and a refusal to allow a way of life to be take away.

The art was created primarily with Painter IX with several texture overlays added in Photoshop.