From 1885 to 1890, Grace Carpenter Davis lived with her parents in Ukiah painting, teaching and rendering illustrations for magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Overland Monthly.

Grace Carpenter Hudson painted National Thorn in 1891; it was selected to be shown at the Minneapolis Art Association exhibit, where it proved very popular.

In 1894, Little Mendocino was hung at the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco, resulting in Hudson gaining further commissions for works in a similar vein.

Her husband John gave up his medical practice in order to study the Pomo people and follow his deep interests in archeology and ethnography.

An 1895 San Francisco Call piece on Grace Hudson was reprinted in the November 5, 1895, issue of The New York Times, entitled "Very Hard to Get Papooses to Pose."

Hudson said that because of the indigenous belief that being sketched or photographed would result in a negative outcome, she had to use elaborate ruses to make private portraits of the infants.

[8] In 1900-1901, Grace Hudson had become exhausted from supplying the demand for her popular paintings; she took a solo vacation in the Territory of Hawaii, to relax and refresh herself.

[9] Returning to the mainland, Grace rejoined her husband and resumed work supplying sentimental Pomo portraits to eager buyers.

In 1904, Grace Hudson accepted a commission from the Field Columbian Museum to go to the Oklahoma Territory for an extended period and paint additional images of the Pawnee.

Returning to Ukiah, California, Grace and John Hudson lived according to a modest bohemian lifestyle of collecting, traveling, field work, reading, entertaining, photography, and painting.

[11] The museum's website says of Grace Hudson that "...her work enjoys renewed interest and recognition for its fine and sympathetic portrayals of native peoples.