Zora and Hughberta were both prolific artists, but they were each, in a way, late bloomers. It was after the Second World War when they were in their forties, that they moved to Southern California, attended the renowned Chouinard Art Institute and blossomed. Other than some examples of Zora's greeting card art, the originals of images on this website were created between the mid-1950's through the 1980's.
Zora and Hughberta were on their own. They may have had their romances, but neither sister chose to marry. Independent women, they supported one another, making a living as artists, on way or another.
They were feminists.
PO 001 Poster; 16x20
Utterly herself, straightforward, unapologetic, Hughberta Steenson’s sketch is of a woman who looks life in the eye.
PO 016 Poster; 16x20
Zora’s interpretation of a Redbook Magazine advertisemen titled Can You Draw This? Zora could draw anything. She did several versions of the soulful 1940’s ladies.
The quotation is from King Henry VI, Part ii.
PO 002 Poster; 16x20
The quotation comes from Virginia Woolf’s book-length essay, Three Guineas. She reflected upon the cause of war and the terrible cost paid by women in a country at war. In Virginia Woolf’s opinion, defending national borders is not a cause that naturally speaks to women and the world would be a more peaceful place without them.
PO 007 Poster; 16x20
Illustration art by Hughberta Steenson, copy for a department store advertisement, probably in the Post Intelligencer.
PO 015 Poster; 16x20
Zora’s doodle is our logo lady.
Marilyn Monroe’s quotation goes on: “I would rather be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
PO 011 Poster; 16x20
One of Hughberta’s favorite models for her advertisement sketches.
Wonderful background texture comes from aging of the drawing paper.
PO 012 Poster; 16x20
She seems to be emerging from the earth, a full grown female like the goddess Aphrodite rising from the sea. She is a real woman: grounded, but eternal, mythic.
PO 010 Poster; 16x20
Zora illustrated Coco Chanel’s gift to womankind: the little black dress.
PO 017 Poster; 16x20
Zora painted this striking young woman several times.
The quotation is by a contemporary author, Taylor Rhodes from her collection of essays titled, calloused: a field journal.
PO 013 Poster; 16x20
Skinny black pants, little black flats, toreador blouse trimmed in ball fringe: all the rage in LA in the 60’s.
The quotation by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is from a work published in 1911 titled Moving The Mountain, a feminist novel, the first part of a trilogy about a land of peace and prosperity populated only by women.
PO 014 Poster; 16x20
Josephine, a favorite model when Zora was at The Chouinard Art Institute.
Nora Ephron was the writer, director, and producer for about twenty movies and stage plays.
PO 004 Poster 16x20
Pencil-slim skirt with a hemline flare, batwing sleeves, three-quarter jacket sleeves, gloves, hat: the last word in style: late ‘50’s, early ‘60’s.
Adrienne Rich was a twentieth century feminist poet and essayist.
PO 009 Poster; 16x20
Zora liked the triad grouping.
Edith Head was also a product of the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Zora and Hughberta were friends and acquaintances with a number of well-known artists who attended or were instructors at Chouinard.
PO 008 Poster; 16x20
Another view of Hughberta’s Toreador Girl.
The quotation by Kate Chopin is from a feminist novel she published in 1899. The interest in feminism has been going on since the fight for suffrage.
PO 006 Poster; 16x20
Advertisement illustration by Hughberta dated 1957.
Charlotte Whitton was the Mayor of Ottawa, Canada from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1964.
PO 005 Poster; 16x20
One of Zora’s interpretations of the Redbook ad for mail-order art instruction.
The quotation, originally written by Christopher Marlowe from Hero and Leander, was borrowed by Shakespeare for a line in As You Like It.
PO 003 Poster: 16x20
A wistful illustration art piece by Hughberta paired with a quotation from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Abstracts painted by Hughberta, the younger sister are linear and geometric. She was good at numbers, worked as a book-keeper for several years and she. learned to identify every nut and bolt in an airplane while in the Marine Corps. Cubism, exposing a form's structural elements in a non-traditional arrangement, became a favorite genre for Hughberta.
Zora’s abstracts tend to be fluid, with transparent colors. Much of Zora’s work is expressionist; more emotional than much of her sister’s.
PR 230 Original: acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 30x15
PR 098
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 16x20*
Watery, luminous watercolor.
Argyles by Hughberta E Steenson
PR 247
16x20 acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 16x20*
Triangles floating in space.
PR 070
14x28 acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 22x30*
A funnel of angles compressing to touch down.
PR 083
20x24 acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 20x24*
City By The Bay is the cover for Art Alone Enduring, Zora and Hugherta’s life story by Mary H Steenson.
PR 116
22x18 acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 24x20*
Hughberta lived in Los Angeles from 1948 to 1977, the period when the old town was replaced with glass and steel towers.
PR 155
16x20 acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 20x24*
When Hughberta joined the U S Marine Corps in 1943, she was trained to manage inventory, including every part of an airplane engine. Painted in military colors: khaki browns and greens with a few dashes of Montezuma red, she has taken apart the engine of a Hellcat, leaving the propeller intact on the right. Cherry Point in North Carolina was her first assignment after completing training.
PR 188
22x30 watercolor; gi-clee print: 22x30*
A luminous watercolor by Zora, looking and feeling like s stained glass window.
PR 191
28x22 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 30x24*
Zora’s Kandinsky
PR 175
20x24 oil on hardboard; gi-clee print: 20x24*
Prodigeous, exotic, somewhat menacing flora outside their Beverly Hills apartment.
PR 233
12x12 pastel on black paper; gi-clee print: 24x24*
Moons of Saturn observed from a passing spacecraft.
PR 190
24x24 oil on hardboard; gi-clee print: 24x24*
One of a series of geometric paintings exhibited in a one-woman show at the Westwood Art Gallery in Los Angeles in 1972.
PR 208
36x26 oil on hardboard; gi-clee print: 34x22*
Beautiful still life abstract by Hughberta. One of the finest paintings in the Steenson collection.
PR 245
20x24 watercolor and tissue paper; gi-clee 20x24*
Tissue paper transparency shows up beautifully in the gi-clee print.
PR 250
20x10 acrylic on hardboard; gi-clee print: 20x10*
Everybody in Los Angeles needs to be moving: in a car, on the freeway.
PR 246
20x24 acrylic on cold press; gi-clee print: 20x24*
Hughberta had a lot of fun with the red toy train. She painted it several times; with each version, a greater state of dissemblance.
PR 216
28x22 acrylic on canvas; gi-clee print: 28x22*
Dissected further, the poor little toy train.
PR 094
30x22 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print 24x18*
The ultimate fate of the little red toy train.
PR 193
20x24 acrylic on art paper: gi-clee print: 20x24*
Much of the art that came out of Los Angeles between 1945 and 1970 was exploring relationships of shape and color. It was the perfect time and place for Hughberta; She took permission to play along with California artists like Fred Hammersely and Lorser Feitelson and others, all who had connections with Chouinard.
PR 255
20x24 acrylic on watercolor paper; gi-clee 20x24*
Hughberta worked with yarns and cords and skeins of hemp. This piece blends several artistic pursuits.
PR 278
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 20x24*
An ingenious design named “Communication” by the artist, anticipated the world wide web by a decade, at least.
Witty and charming, this section contains early pieces from Zora's career with Buzza Greeting Card Company and other Midwest card companies. Later cartoon-type drawings were done during the 1950's. Both sisters attended Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles where many instructors and students were affiliated with the Disney and Warner Brothers Studios.
PR 121 Original: 20x24 watercolor; gi-clee print: 20x24*
Zora became friends with several of the best animators in the film business. Don Graham, the first and most influential drawing instructor for the Disney Studios taught at the Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles. She was also a good friend of Chuck Jones, creator of Bugs Bunny and many other zany characters for Warner Brothers. She was encouraged to pursue her obvious talent for cartooning.
PR 197 Original: 20x24 watercolor on brown paper; gi-clee: 20x24*
Expressionist Entomology display.
PR 140 Original 24x20 charcoal; gi-clee print: 20x24*
Look who’s coming to call! The Big Guy himself!
PR 124 Original 16x20 watercolor; gi-clee print: 16x20*
“each night when you’re asleep, into your tent I’ll creep-”
The Sheik of Araby was written in 1921, recorded by Fats Waller, Spike Jones and the Beatles in 1962.
PR 192 Original: 10x8 ink on newsprint; gi-clee print 12x10*
.
PR 150 Original: 12x24 watercolor; gi-clee print: 12x24*
Kitty skeletons, actually. Cheerfully macabre, a lovely watercolor with a pleasing design. Zora really didn’t like cats.
PR 153 Original: 20x24 watercolor; gi-clee print: 20x24*
No idea what’s going on here, but whatever it is, it’s funny.
PR 198 Original: 20x20 watercolor; gi-clee print: 20x20*
A section from a story board of an old poem, The Face On The Barroom Floor.
I was working on a portrait one afternoon in May of a fair-haired boy, a friend of min who lived across the way. and Madeline admired it and much to my surprise said she’d like to know the man that had such dreamy eyes.
The figures were painted on paper, then cut out and pasted against the background.
PR 198 20x20*
It didn’t take long to know him and before the month had flown, My friend had stolen my darling and I was left alone.
PR 231 Original: 24x20 acrylic on glassine; gi-clee print: 24x20*
The nuclear family.
PR 236 Original ; 25x15 Watercolor on newsprint gi-clee print: 15x10*
PR 270 Original: 24x36 Paper sculpture on rice paper.
PR 164
4x6 tempera and ink on craft paper gi-clee print:8x12*
Painstaking detail. Really exquisite.
PR 167
4x6 tempera and ink on card stock gi-clee print: 8x12*
Anniversary card.
PR 166
4x6 tempera on art paper gi-clee print: 8x12*
Trips to the beach with paint-box and easel!
PR 074
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 22x30*
The house, the bluff itself and a tunnel cut through an outcropping are integrated into a seamless experience of the whole. Same and similar values of background color such as the sky infiltrate the structure; a dark border color at the base of the house creeps down the bluff; the sea color works its way up into the bluff and so on. As a result, one feels the cool of the ocean breeze, the smell of the salt, the awesome view from the windows of the house on the bluff.
from Art Alone Enduring
PR 090
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30*
Cubism treatment of “Sails” pictured below.
PR 093
24x20 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 24x20*
Marina del Rey in July.
PR 125
24x18 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print 24x18*
The same composition as the piece she titled “Sails.”
PR 258
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30
Overcast and misty. Southern California isn’t always sunny.
PR 180
22x15 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 22x15*
Zora and Hughberta moved from sunny California to cloudy Washington State in 1979, a place abounding in waterfront scenes.
PR 176
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30*
Cluster of little fishing boats waiting for the tide.
PR 112
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee 22x30*
Her favorite getaway when she was stationed at El Toro Marine Base during the Second World War.
PR 177
18x24 oil on hardboard. gi-clee print: 18x24*
Mysterious or perhaps romantic midnight voyage.
PR 206
24x30 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 24x30*
Cool with the pungent smell of salt and mollusks.
PR 113
16x24 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 16x24*
Flotilla on a summer’s day
PR 237
20x24 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print:20x24
Old pier near Malibu.
PR 081
18x24 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 18x24*
They swoop over the fishing grounds for fish or a fisherman’s left-overs from lunch.
PR 238
20x24 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 20x24*
Small but serious fishing vessel.
Pr 243
20x24 acrylic on hardboard gi-clee print: 20x24*
Zora’s Hopper period.
PR 244
24x18 tempera on hardboard; gi-clee print: 28x18*
Flat planes, monochromatic, Edward Hopper influence.
Saturating their home with color, the sisters filled canvases and watercolor paper with sumptuous flower and still life paintings.
They exhibited and sold many, too, which unfortunately we cannot share with you.
PR 148
22x30 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 22x30
A burst of late summer.
PR 067
20x24 watercolor gi-clee print: 20x24
Autumn light shines through the woody tones.
PR 105
20x24 oil on canvas gi-clee print: 20x24
Chrysanthemums in need of trimming. Even fading flowers are inspiration for the artist.
PR 184
12x15 oil on wood gi-clee print: 12x15
Zora’s expressionist floral still life.
PR 254
20x24 watercolor; gi-clee print: 20x24
Charming composition for the breakfast room.
PR 261
24x20 watercolor; gi-clee print: 24x20
Farewell to the garden.
PR 185
8x10 oil on hardboard; gi-clee print: 16x20
Pots of geraniums and marigolds to brighten up any corner.
PR 183
16x20 oil on hardboard gi-clee print: 16x20
Healthy bowl of mid-century art.
PR 179
10x16 oil on hardboard gi-clee print 10x16
Gay profusion of fragrance.
PR 147
20x14 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 20x24
Stylized arrangement in the foyer.
PR 097
20x24 Tempera and ink on craft paper
Zora’s nod to Chouinard instructor Bill Moore who shared his collection of African art with his students.
PR 101
18x24 watercolor on art paper gi-clee print: 18x24
A cupboard full of bottles and cruets.
PR 048
18x24 oil on canvas gi-clee print 18x24
Jewel-like cubes in a ‘70’s delight. Zora dated this one: 1977.
PR 038
20x24 acrylic on watercolor paper gi-clee print 20x24
An armful of August.
PR 251
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30
An antique measuring device. Was there an art studio application?
PR 252
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30*
A strange antique in the study.
PR 028
6x8 watercolor on art paper gi-clee print: 20x30*
Zora painted a few realistic pieces to demonstrate that she could; she just preferred a more modern treatment.
Buzza Greeting Card Company, founded in Minneapolis in 1910, was one of the largest greeting card companies in the world by 1921 when Zora found employment there. She was the eldest of three children in a family often hard pressed financially, and she was seventeen when she started to work for Buzza. For a talented young woman, it was a dream job. Most girls her age worked as maids or in shops at longer hours for less pay.
Although constrained to creating 4x6 images on a twenty-four inch drawing board, it was the discipline and training that eventually produced an exceptional contemporary artist.
PR 164 Original: 4x5 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Zora’s little masterpiece. A notation on the back expresses her frustration with the art director’s order to trim the skirt and background.
She also complained that she would not be compensated for writing the verse. “However, the sentiment is my own. Why do the writing and the design when the writers draw a big salary.”
PR 166 Original: 4x6 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Designed as a wedding or engagement card. Most figures featured in Zora’s greeting cards were children or child-like adults.
PR 163 Original: 4x5 tempera on craft paper. Gi-clee print: 8x10
Welcome to Spring! Note the signatures. Not every Buzza artist was accorded that privilege.
PR 194 Original: 4x5 ink on card stock; gi-clee print: 8x10
The first design phase. The three images that follow were variations submitted for approval
PR 194 Original 4x5 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Trying out color combinations.
PR 194 Original: 4x5 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee image: 8x10
How about this selection?
PR 194 Original: 4x5 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
The chosen color scheme. A mock-up of the printed card had an illustration on the fly leaf.
PR 194 Original 4x5
PR 167 Original 4x5 ink and tempera on paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Anniversary Card
PR 207 Original: 4x5 tempera on paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Summer fun. A Birthday Card, actually.
PR 213 Original: 4x5 tempera on art paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
A Birthday Card. This little man with blond curly locks looks a lot like photograph of Zora’s little brother.
PR 222 Original 5x4 watercolor on paper; gi-clee print: 10x8
Part of a series, possibly greeting card ideas..
PR 224 Original 4x5 ink and watercolor on paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
So cute!
PR 223 Original 4x5 watercolor on paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Note the skunk catching a ride.
PR 225 Original: 4x5 ink and watercolor; gi-clee print: 8x10.
PR 214 Original 4x5 watercolor on paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Whimsy.
PR 186 Original 4x5 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 8x10
Over the years as a greeting card artist, Zora created many holiday designs.
PR 187 Original 4x5 Tempera on paper: gi-clee print 8x10
PR 164 Original: 4x6 Tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 12x18
A little masterpiece by Zora. She complained that the art director forced the unfortunate trimming of the skirt and background.
PR 166 Original: 5x6.5 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print 10x12
A wedding congratulations card. Note the signature. Not all Buzza artists were accorded that privilege.
PR 194 Original 3x5 ink on card stock; gi-clee print: 8x10
The design in ink, submitted for initial approval.
A great city is a great solitude.
For some, the experience of a city is of the hustle and bustle, the clamor of the crowd, the cacophony of the traffic, the elegance of the architecture. Zora and Hughberta’s love affair with Los Angeles was more private, personal, intimate. They spent a lot of time in parks, sharing brown paper lunches and sketching. They spent a lot of time on Bunker Hill with paintboxes and easels, recording the old neighborhood with sadness as it was being razed, the hill itself leveled for the construction of glass and steel behemoths.
The opening quotation was written by a monk, Desiderius Erasmus in the sixteenth century, who left his monastery to reside in Paris and London. He often found himself as alone in those great cities as he was in his little cell. Zora and Hughberta Steenson might have once in a while agreed.
PR 021
24x20 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 24x20*
A lone figure, diminished by tropical plantings along the lakeshore, gazes across the water at the imposing, hard-edged density of the city. A great city is a great solitude.
PR 117
24x18 watercolor on craft paper; gi-clee print: 24x18*
Zora painted this place many times in many seasons. The oldest city park in Los Angeles, originally Westlake Park, was renamed in 1942 to honor General Douglas MacArthur.
PR 23
18x24 tempera on hardboard gi-clee print: 18x24*
The essence of Los Angeles: palm trees, sun, buildings.
PR 127
20x16 watercolor on art paper; gi-clee print: 20x16*
From the park’s earliest days in the 1890’s, small boats have been floating on the lake at MacArthur Park.
PR 060
20x24 ink on art paper; gi-clee print: 20x24*
The future looms over humble homes of the old neighborhood.
PR 168
17x17 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 17x17*
Featured in several film noir movies, the Sunshine Apartments angled up Clay Street overlooking Angels’ Flight.
PR 63
20x24 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 20x24*
In the mid 1950’s this part of the hill was still a neighborhood.
PR 240
20x24 charcoal on art paper; gi-clee print 20x24*
Abandoned house on Bunker Hill awaiting its fate.
PR 071
15x20 pastel on art paper; gi-clee print: 20x28*
Actually representation of the Third Street Steps, running beside Angels’ Flight. Iconic pinnacle of City Hall is top left center.
PR 173
40x45 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 30x36*
Zora’s dark and wonderful abstract expressionist lament for the eviscerated Bunker Hill; charmless towers surround the last Victorian in an iconic part of old Los Angeles.
PR 142
15x20 acrylic on brown board gi-clee: 15x20*
Expressionist view of a distressed property.
PR 069
20x28 oil on hardboard gi-clee print: 20x28*
Colorful but rickety house in old Los Angeles. Possibly the Union Station clock tower in the background.
PR 171
46x40 oil on canvas; gi-clee print: 30x26*
Zora painted several versions of The Blessing of the Animals, the venerable ceremony that takes place every years on the Saturday before Easter Sunday on Olvera Street.
PR 060
20x16 ink on art paper gi-clee print: 20x16*
The oldest street in Los Angeles.
PR 96
18x24 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 18x24*
Lovely watercolor looking toward the aviary of the Griffith Park Zoo.
PR 103
24x20 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 24x20*
For years, Zora drew and painted child-like figures for greeting cards. Children fascinated and delighted her.
PR 142
24x20 tempera on craft paper; gi-clee print: 24x20*
Griffith Park Zoo.
PR 143
24x20 Tempera on craft paper gi-clee print: 24x20*
A pleasant pastime for tigers: watching humans in the wild.
PR 145
20x24 tempera on art paper; gi-clee print: 20x24*
Fun for both parties.
PR 141
16x20 watercolor on art paper; gi-clee print: 16x20*
A sidewalk eatery off Sunset Boulevard.
PR 110
24x20 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 24x20*
Echo Park was a short bus ride from Chouinard and their apartment. It was their favorite spot for strolling, sketching and painting.
PR 249
17x20 acrylic on brown board gi-clee: 17x20*
On the path near Echo Park.
PR 256
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30*
Surrounding the park, which was less groomed then, in the 1950’s, wonderful old houses encroached by out of control vegetation. Upper left: the arches of Amy Semple McPherson’s Temple.
PR 027
15x18 tempera on art paper gi-clee print: 15x18*
Zora and Hughberta often painted a small bridge to a small island in Echo Park.
PR 076
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee print: 22x30*
In 1904, Victor Segno built a Moorish building beside Echo Lake. From the observation tower, he transmitted thought waves to people who had subscribed to his service. This structure housed a printing press which turned out literature espousing the power of concentrated thought. Zora had no information about the curious place, uninhabited and nearly obscured by semi-tropical plant growth. She found it a fascinating subject.
PR 234
22x30 watercolor on cold press gi-clee print: 22x30*
View of the lake from a higher perspective.
PR 196
16x20 tempera on craft paper gi-clee print: 16x20*
A Sister of Mercy stepping onto the Echo Park bridge
PR 92
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee pint: 22x30*
The fabulous roller-coaster in Long Beach, California.
PR 241
22x30 watercolor on cold press; gi-clee 22x30*
Venice in America.
