Grace Carpenter Hudson was an artist who liked to do oil paintings of Pomo people, mostly children, who were Native Americans. She grew up in Potter Valley, California and was born in 1865. Growing up she had a talent in drawing and later on would attend the San Francisco School of Design. Grace started painting about Indians because of her husband. Both of them living in San Francisco, and around them are Native Americans living in their natural culture. Grace and her husband then gained a lot of interest in the people living around the area, then causing the spark of painting Native Americans. She has many famous paintings dating all the way back to the 1900’s, “Little Mendocino”. 

“Little Mendocino” (1892)                                 “The Watermelon” (unknown)

Little Mendocino is a painting of a little Pomo baby crying, in a cradle board (above). It is one of her more famous painting. Another one of her paintings is “The Watermelon”, (above) which was made with oils. The Watermelon is a painting of a boy with his dog while eating some watermelon. As you can tell, Grace Carpenter Hudson is a respectful artist. We say this because she painted them in their native culture, it seems that she didn’t paint using stereotypes. She really tried to be accurate by actually using Indians to portray the picture before she painted it. Referencing the “Highway Flowers” (below) she had an actual girl stand in those flowers of the field to paint that picture.

“Highway Flowers” (1925)

Here are also two famous paintings of hers called “A Hunter” and “National Thorn”.  Both of these paintings follow the common trend within her painting of Pomo Indians below the age of 8.  She really enjoyed painting these Pomo kids and made some great art work from her interest in it.

             “National Thorn” (1891)                                              “The Hunter” (1906)