Collectors Item WPA Art License Plate "Nambe Valley Summer” by Sheldon Parsons

{Part of the New Mexico Foundation Community Art Plates Series.}

Add a bit of color and class to your car with New Deal Front License Plates and at the same time help NNDPA continue its good works to preserve New Mexico’s New Deal public art.

States That Allow Decorative Front Plates: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia

These colorful, decorative plates depict New Mexico scenes created by New Mexico artists during the New Deal years from 1933-1943. The selected images are part of a vast body of work completed under various New Deal Art Programs. Our beautiful plates are durable, long lasting, and printed on metal.

If you know someone in any of the 19 above states that don’t require a front license plate, why not surprise them with this special gift from the Land of Enchantment? They also make wonderful wall art or exterior placements.

* We are a 501(C)(3) Non Profit. All Proceeds go towards our efforts to preserve New Deal sites around the country and educate the public about this American history.

This design is of a painting that hangs at the McKinley County Courthouse in Gallup, NM. Parsons moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1913. When he experienced the vivid colors and soft architecture of the Southwest, he never painted figures again. The Santa Fe art colony was not established until 1921, but Parsons became one of the earliest resident artists and was known for his “happy, serene, impressionist landscapes.” Parsons work was well received in Santa Fe. He often showed at the Palace of the Governors with many other local artists of the day. He became the first director of the New Mexico Museum of Fine Art in 1918, where a number of his paintings are a part of the museum’s permanent collection. When Parsons daughter married the artist Victor Higgins in 1919, it is said that the influence of Higgins can be seen in some of Parsons best work from the ’20’s and ’30’s.