Three Riders, Navajo, on Horseback

Holgate's control of his water-based paint shifts from transparent etheral treatment in the sky above the riders to a lyrical opaque depiction of the three horses in this scene. Vegetation appears static, in stark contrast to the horses' forward movement.

Eugene Holgate Jr. was born in 1938 in Utah and died in 2001. He received his education on the Navajo Nation and at Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona.

A painter and a jeweler, his primary mediums have been watercolor, gouache, silver and gemstones. He won awards at the Arizona State Fair, the Navajo Tribal Fair, the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Holgate is cited in Southwest Indian Painting by Clara Lee Tanner and The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters by Patrick D. Lester.