Norma Howard

Norma Howard is a Choctaw-Chickasaw painter, born and raised in Stigler, Oklahoma. She began drawing at an early age, using crayons her father would buy and taught herself to paint using watercolors. A central theme in all of Howard’s painting is family. She had seven brothers and sisters and her family often struggled against poverty. She never received any formal artistic training, instead developing her own unique style of watercolor painting. She uses short, cross-hatched strokes and works in multiple layers to give her images an uncommon sense of realism and depth. Her paintings, most of which depict scenes of everyday Choctaw life, are featured in museums and prominent private collections around the country. The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa now displays one of her paintings, "Gathering Corn," in its permanent collection.