1990s Carolyne Hawley "The Old Ways" Native American Portrait Oil on Canvas

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The Old Ways is an original oil on canvas by American Western painter Carolyne Hawley, depicting a Plains figure in … Read more The Old Ways is an original oil on canvas by American Western painter Carolyne Hawley, depicting a Plains figure in a pale cream trade cloth shirt with beaded strips, a bone hairpipe breastplate, and hair drops, holding a pipe tomahawk against a warm salmon sky. Two spectral white buffalo emerge from drifting smoke at the upper left, a motif Hawley returned to across her Native American subjects. The palette moves from rose and apricot in the sky through ivory, sage, and slate blue in the garment, with loose atmospheric handling above and tightly rendered detail in the face and regalia. The coarse open weave of the canvas reads through the paint film and gives the surface a distinct tooth.

The painting is signed by the artist in teal at the lower left. The reverse is inscribed in the artist's hand with the title, her surname, and a notation reserving reproduction rights, and the frame retains its original gallery inventory label marked at thirty-two hundred dollars. Hawley is a California-based painter known for Western and equestrian subjects, with gallery representation in Carmel and Palm Desert and portrait commissions held by the city of Palm Springs. Her Native American and buffalo paintings are among her most sought-after work.

It is presented in its original cerused oak gallery frame with a slim gold fillet and a pale linen liner, a period-appropriate treatment that suits the warm palette and reads well in contemporary Western, Southwestern, and ranch interiors. At forty-four inches wide and just under forty-nine inches high framed, this is a substantial statement piece suited to a fireplace wall, stairwell, or entry.

Offered from a private Colorado collection. Sold as a single framed painting with original hanging wire, ready to hang. See less