[2] By 1903 Buff was running out of money and felt that art school was not for him; he made the decision to leave Switzerland and head to America by 1904 in hopes of a more inspiring lifestyle.
As Buff was traveling West through America, he went through a number of different jobs, including painting, shepherding, washing dishes, and baking.
By 1907, Conrad Buff had made it to Los Angeles with no assets to his name and began to make an income through painting houses.
He then attended night classes at Los Angeles High School where he painted a series of many small oil portraits that were never shown publicly but were unlike anything that was seen at the time.
[6] After marrying Conrad Buff, Mary gave up her pursuit of painting to write children's books with him.
[3] Conrad Buff's earliest artwork traces back to small landscape oil paintings that were sold for 50 cents each in 1905.
[1] She was also an artist and the assistant curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art when she married Conrad Buff in 1922.
Stories in the books they have written and illustrated, such as Dash & Dart and Forest Folk, feature nature as the primary focus.
[7] The landscape portraits created by Buff where distinct from those of his peers, as he used a cross-hatching technique along with pointillist style.
The Caldecott Medal recognizes the illustrator of the previous year's "most distinguished American picture book for children"; they were runners-up[a] for Dash and Dart in 1943.
[9] The Newbery Medal recognizes the writer of the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children"; the Buffs were runners-up[a] for Big Tree in 1947, The Apple and the Arrow in 1952, and Magic Maize in 1954.
[8] Conrad Buff left his mark on more than just the world of children's literature, as he was commissioned to paint architectural murals in Los Angeles and Phoenix.