[2] She painted a series of portraits of notable Californians and memorialized many historic early California structures on canvas.
[3] The commendatory scroll praised Klinker for her role as an oil painter and mentioned many of her portrait subjects such as General John C. Frémont, Andrés Pico, José Antonio Carrillo and Dr. Joseph P.
[5] Orpha Klinker designed the County Seal of Los Angeles in 1939, winning a design competition for Los Angeles County for an insignia that represented commerce, shipping, agriculture, airplane manufacturing, the motion picture industry, the petroleum industry and recreation.
On Wednesday, February 23, 1955, California Congressman Gordon L. McDonough presented to the U. S. House of Representatives a new United States flag design created by Klinker incorporating two additional stars for the proposed statehood of Alaska and Hawaii.
[2] While living in New York City, Klinker created a series of paper dolls with children's characters in the kewpie style featuring fashionable clothing of the 1920s.
Beginning in the 1920s, Klinker's work focused on fashion illustration for retail stores, furniture firms, magazines and pattern companies.
Examples of her fashion work appeared in spreads in the Los Angeles Times feature pages to introduce the new season trends.
[14] During World War II, Klinker created pastel portraits for more than 1000 United States military personnel at various Veterans Hospitals.
An exhibition of some of these portraits were widely shown, including a show at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California.
She was also a member of the California Art Club, the Society of American Etchers, and the San Fernando Valley Professional Artists Guild.