Fleurette Farley Estes is a San Antonio, Texas based Navajo artist and photographer. Originally from the Navajo Nation Reservation in the United States, Fleurette received a Bachelor of Arts from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, then moved to Tyler, Texas and pursued a career in retail alongside painting and making hand-lettered signage for local businesses. After moving to San Antonio in 2017, she retired from retail and devoted her career to art full-time, including painting, photography, sewing, jewelry-making, and embroidery.

Fleurette’s paintings are often inspired by her travels, and include (but are not limited to) dramatic abstracts, pseudo-realism, impressionistic large brushstrokes paintings, and landscapes. Most of her landscapes are inspired by her travels back to her birth home in the southwest. Currently, Fleurette’s paintings are displayed in Texas at Brady’s Coffee shop in Tyler and Powerhouse Bakery in San Antonio. Fleurette’s love for photography began as a teenager, when she used point-and-shoot disposable cameras to capture silly moments of friends and family. The cameras changed with time, and in the summer of 2017, she invested in her first “real” camera, the Fuji-film XT2. She signed up for a night-walking photography class just before heading off to London, U.K., and upon returning to the U.S., continued her photography education. She has since turned her love for photography into a career, and enjoys taking photos of people, florals, concerts, landscapes, street photography, and cultural event/preservation photography. In March 2018, Fleurette had her first photo exhibit in Portland, Oregon, and has since won several photography awards.

In 2019, Fleurette started the company Red House Trading Post (RHTP). Named for her native clan, Kinn l ichii’nìì (Red House), RHTP features her Native-influenced art, crafts, clothing, and jewelry. She makes skirts influenced by both the traditional Navajo ribbon skirts of her background, and the clothing of Plains Indians. Fleurette’s jewelry is inspired by the beautiful turquoise of her childhood, and she loves creating jewelry that is both modern and traditional using only sterling silver, heishi beads, turquoise, and other natural stones.

In addition to her painting exhibits, Fleurette participates in several monthly art markets in and around San Antonio, and was one of the featured artists at the “Hip to be Square” fundraising event at the McNay Museum. Her photography can currently be seen on display at Goods Gallery in San Antonio. Her most recent art and photography can also be found on Instagram (@fleuretteestesstudio, @fleuretteestesphotography, @redhousetradingpost) and on Facebook (Fleurette Estes Studio & Photography, and Red House Trading Post).