Milford Zornes was born in 1908 near Camargo, Oklahoma. He spent his early years wondering what was “over the horizon” which was the question that guided his art, his travel, and his philosophy of life. From an early age, encouraged by his mother, he exhibited artistic talent and was known as the “boy who could draw”

In 1928, at age 20, Zornes hitchhiked across America, and worked on the docks in New York City, eventually shipping out to Amsterdam as a common seaman. After a few months, he returned to the United States and settled in the Los Angeles area studying with noted artist F. Tolles Chamberlain and eventually with artist and California Scene Painter, Millard Sheets at Pomona College in Claremont, CA.

By 1933, Zornes was receiving awards for his watercolors. He was involved in several government-sponsored programs to support the arts and artists during the Depression. In 1934, one of his paintings was selected by Eleanor Roosevelt to hang in the Whitehouse. He was selected to do two Post Office murals during this period including one in his hometown of Claremont, California. In 1941 he became President of the California Watercolor Society. In 1942 while teaching at Otis Art Institute he helped design and paint a fresco at the Ramona Bowl in Hemet, home of California’s official play – Ramona.

At age 34, Zornes was drafted into the U.S. Army/Air Corp in World War II and was assigned to be an official army artist in the China, Burma, India theater. Seventy-six of his watercolors and drawings became the property of the U.S. Army and remain housed in the Army Art Museum in Virginia.

Shortly after the war, Zornes settled in Claremont, California to paint, teach at Pomona College, and travel. He spent most of the years from 1950-54 in Thule, Greenland where he helped to build the Thule Air Base and did an extensive series of paintings. In 1963, he purchased the former home and studio of noted artist Maynard Dixon in Mt. Carmel, Utah near Zion National Park. In 1973, with the sponsorship of the University of Oklahoma, he traveled to Nicaragua to do a series of paintings which, in 1977, resulted in a book featuring those paintings. He again was sponsored to do a trip to Uganda in 1986 where he completed a series of paintings.

Zornes was a much-admired instructor, having taught at several art institutions including Pomona College, Otis Art Institute, and the Pasadena School of Fine Art. He also taught workshops extensively throughout the United States. He took his workshop students to exotic destinations including China, Alaska, Mexico, Ireland, Spain, and Hawaii.

In 1964, Zornes was nominated as an Associate National Academician. In 1994 he became a full National Academician. In 1988 he received the Southern Utah Honor Medallion for Distinguished Contribution to Quality of Life. In 2005 he received the National Watercolor Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

Despite having macular degeneration beginning in his 80’s and being legally blind Milford painted, taught, and inspired other artists.

In January, 2008, Milford Zornes celebrated his 100th birthday by presenting a two-hour art demonstration at the Pasadena Museum of California Art to a crowd of over 200 people, an event he looked forward to for many years.

He passed away at the age of 100, on February 24, 2008. The Los Angeles Times obituary stated that he was probably the most prolific watercolorist in the United States. His ashes were scattered behind the Dixon/Zornes studio in Mt. Carmel, Utah.

Biography courtesy of Maria Zornes Baker

Photograph by David Drake