Ukiah's Grace Hudson was an extremely gifted portraitist, but more importantly, an artist with great heart. Many of her paintings reveal the inner beauty of her friends and neighbors, the Pomo of Mendocino County.

Grace's paintings have universal appeal: children playing with their pets, women going about daily chores, and wise older men with deep character lines on their faces, all with an undeniable beauty and dignity.

Her portraits of the local Pomo was a direct challenge to racist and bigoted people of her time, and of all times. Grace visually challenged everyone who believes negative stereotypes. She wanted everyone to know the human dimension, beauty and dignity of native people.

What makes Grace Hudson's portraits so compelling is that beyond her painterly skill, Grace paints the spirit of her subjects. The faces of reveal each subject's inner strengths, their heart and character.

Grace Hudson,Da-No Ke-Ya (Of the Mountain People), 1903
oil on canvas, Gift of the Palm Springs Art Museum

The Wi-Ly 1912 ... Grace painted only a few paintings of women wearing dance regalia. The Grace Hudson Museum had no paintings of Pomo women in ceremonial dress. When this painting was offered recently, the Museum decided to buy it. Upon receiving the painting, restoration was done by well known Santa Rosa art conservator Dennis Calabi.

Da-No Ke-Ya (Of the Mountain People) 1903 ... Grace often wrote of her paintings in her diary. She said that this piece is the head of "Holy Mary's" Rosa. The woman wears a cat skin with a necklace of madrone berries.

Grace painted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time when native people were subjected to widely accepted racial stereotypes. But when people saw Grace's portraits of native people, stereotypes fell away. People could not help but seeing the dignity, beauty and warmth in these portraits.

Grace was born in Potter Valley in rural Mendocino County. Her natural artistic talent was encouraged by her parents. In 1879, Grace's parents sent 14 year old Grace to study at San Francisco's School of Design where she excelled in portraiture.

Four years later, Grace was an independently minded young woman, anxious to forge her own future. At age 18, she left her art studies to her parents dissatisfaction and married a man 15 years her senior who was a real estate and money broker named William T. Davis.

The marriage ended in a divorce less than two years after they eloped.

Humbled, Grace returned home and lived with her parents back in Ukiah where she pursued her art, doing illustrations for Cosmopolitan and Overland Monthly, and helping in the family's photography studio.

By 1890, Grace was older and wiser. At age 25, she married Dr. John Wilz Napier Hudson, a Tennessee physician from Nashville who had interests in archaeology and ethnic studies. John found Grace's and her parents' attitudes and manner far different from what he had experienced growing up and soon, he asked Grace for her hand in marriage.

John Hudson, worked as a doctor for the North Pacific Railroad that had a terminal in Ukiah. Because of John's lifelong interest in ethnic studies, he encouraged Grace to paint portraits of the local Pomo. Grace had known the Pomo since she was a child. She knew many of them well, and was a personal friend of many.

Over her painting career, she produced over 680 works. Most of her paintings were of the local Pomo. Grace also painted portraits of Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese people during her stay in the Hawaiian Islands in 1901. She also painted other Native Americans while traveling with her ethnologist husband.

In 1901, Grace had achieved a national reputation as an artist, and she had become the main breadwinner of her family. But success had taken a toll and left her exhausted. For health reasons, she decided to take a year off and and rejuvenate. She left for the quiet and serenity of Honolulu (much different than the Honolulu we know today). While there a few months, she felt inspired to pick up her brushes again and create. While in Hawaii, she did 26 canvases, with a range of subjects including native Hawaiians, and immigrant workers from Japan and China.

Meanwhile, back in Ukiah, California, John was changing too. He gave up his medical career, rededicating his life exclusively to ethnography. John worked for museums in the East studying and collecting artifacts.

When Grace returned from Hawaii, the couple traveled widely, documenting other Native American tribes including the Pawnee in Oklahoma. Grace did numerous paintings on these trips, but sadly, many of these paintings were lost in the earthquake of 1906.

John Hudson died in January 1936 at the age of 79 and Grace died a little over a year later at age 72. The couple had no children and left their estate to a nephew, Mark, who gave Grace and John's home along with 30,000 objects of Grace's art and John's Pomo basket collection to what is today the Grace Hudson Museum.

Old John Scott 1928 ... John Scott of Pinoleville was known as a spiritual leader by both the Native and non-Native populations. Although traditional funeral customs of the Pomo (cremation) were banned at the time of his death, the Pomo requested an exemption for John Scott's last rites. The request was granted. He received one of the last "old time" funerals.

The 1st Lady of the Tribe (Wife of Captain Plean) 1928 ... Grace wrote, "Ka-wi-a, the wife of Captain Plean, is a person of great dignity. On social occasions she marches in the Council House adorned with many pounds of wampum, firmly taking the position behind her chief as the first lady of the tribe."

Kay-will with Cane 1933 ... Bitumen is a tar-like substance which is thinned with turpentine. Grace liked working with bitumen, especially in her later years. C. Fredrick Faude was an art and antiques dealer in both San Francisco and Sausalito. He collected 23 of Grace's paintings and sketches and refused to sell them. Of Grace, he stated, "She is California's greatest artist, living or dead." Later, he donated many of his pieces to the Palm Springs Art Museum, which in turn recently gave them to the Grace Hudson Museum.

Te-Ha-Ra 1933 ... Te-ha-ra was the last tribal singer of the Yokia (Yokayo) Rancheria.

Yesterday (Koi-ba) 1933 ... This is the last painting Grace made of John Scott. Grace painted John Scott several times and painted several generations of his family. John Scott worked with Grace's husband John Hudson, sharing with him ethnographic information which is included in John Hudson's writings of the Pomo people.

Pomo across Northern California have joined with environmentalists to halt logging in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest in central Mendocino County near Caspar between Ukiah and Fort Bragg.

Traditional dancers in ceremonial dress danced as their ancestors did to protect the land and their way of life. They are particularly interested in a 533 acre portion of the forest near Caspar in order to protect ancient Native American lands and ancient village sites.

They are trying to prevent these lands which are historic and sacred for the Pomo from logging and the devastation which goes along with building logging roads. Such activity would cause disruption and destruction of Pomo artifacts.

There are nine Demonstration State Forests in California, with the Jackson Demonstration Forest being the largest. They were conceived in 1949 as an effort to establish sustainable forests in California after more than a century of clear-cutting virgin forests.

Environmentalists are joining the Pomo in their protest. They are most interested in preserving older trees because of their valuable ability to sequester carbon, assisting in battling climate change.

Linda Sorensen will participate in Art @ the Source 2022 with 6 other artists at Atelier One in Graton, 2860 Bowen Street. Two other Graton studios will be open nearby. Linda has been busy creating new work and will be there to welcome you. The dates are June 4-5 and June 11-12, 10am to 5pm. The main preview exhibit is at Sebastopol Center for the Arts from May 22 to June 12. If you don't receive the catalog in the mail you can request one or find at visitors centers, etc.

The nine Graton artists (upcoming Art @ the Source 2022 Catalog)

Linda's new Etsy shop: Linda Sorensen's shop on etsy.com, focuses on giftable small original paintings, and a few giclee prints on canvas of some of her favorite larger paintings. The two pictured here are among her 6" by 6" "mini"s, framed as shown on the site. Etsy's platform provides an easy-purchase, fast-shipping option as an alternative to contacting Linda or our fine art gallery (which are of course equally welcome).
Link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lindasorensenpaints

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