Becoming the sole portrait artist for a major motion picture studio never entered Sonia Sanders’ mind when she was a teenager in Toronto, drawing movie stars from magazines as a hobby. 

Sanders, 84, a widow since 1968, recently shared her memories from her Culver City home in which she’s resided since 1964, a home filled with art and mementos from her career.

“Everywhere I look there are reminders of my time with Universal Studios,” she said, pointing to a hanging plant in her kitchen that the studio gave her in 1979 when she was recovering from an accident.

She chuckled, recalling that “when my husband, who was an American, proposed, he said, ‘Marry me and you’ll never have to go to work.’ We married in 1950 and moved to the U.S. the following year. Well, in 1963, after two children were born, and 13 years later, he said, ‘Now it’s your turn, but I want you to be an artist.’ At that time Renay was eight and Marc was 12. Luckily, there was an ad in the paper for a portrait artist in Santa Monica on the pier.”

The whole family trooped out to the pier, Sanders bringing along one of her oil paintings as a sample of her work. She was hired on the spot. But there was one hitch.

“The medium was pastels, which I had never worked in,” she said.  “Of course, I didn’t tell the boss that.”  

She arranged to start the following week, hastily bought pastels, and practiced doing faces from an instruction book.

“I thought mostly women would be vain enough to want their portraits done so I practiced doing women’s faces, and the first day at work on the pier I had only men sitting for me,” she recalled ruefully.

Her boss was pleased enough with her work to send her to Ports O’ Call Village in San Pedro to be a manager as well as an artist. Then he sent her to Universal Studios, where she had a concession from 1964 to 1966. 

“In 1966 Universal asked me to work for them,” Sanders said. “I’ve been very blessed. It was the most amazing job in the world. Every day up at Universal was an adventure.”

And the adventure, during which she was their only portrait artist, lasted until her retirement 20 years later.   

During that time she created countless portraits in pastel that are represented in homes across the nation as well as in many foreign countries, as visitors from across the globe took the Universal tours. And the studio had her do portraits of public figures, stars, visiting dignitaries and heads of state as gifts. 

Sanders laughed as she recalled the time her brother, Joe Rosenthal, visited her at Universal. Rosenthal, a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, is an internationally acclaimed artist and sculptor whose work is in museums and collections throughout the world.

“A man had just sat down for me to do his portrait,” she said.  “I looked at him and I looked at my brother and I told the man, ‘I’ve got Leonardo da Vinci sitting here and you want me to do your portrait?’ And my brother said ‘Oh, Sonia, I’ve got to go, I’m going on a tour,’ and left. So I ended up doing the portrait.”

Another time she heard a voice behind her saying, “I’d like to bring my daughter up here so you can do her portrait.” Upon looking around she saw it was Tippi Hedren, mother of actress Melanie Griffith.

Sanders still shakes her head in wonder over an exceptionally beautiful woman who sat for her.

“She was stunning but there was just one little thing,” she said. “She had a line going across her forehead so I didn’t include that in the portrait.” To her amazement the woman insisted that the line be put back in, stating “I worked hard to get it.” And Sanders complied.

And she continues to regret a lost opportunity.

“One day Henry Fonda came and used my phone,” she said, “but he only did it to get a closer look at the sample portraits I had on my wall. To this day I’m angry with myself because I did not engage in conversation with him.”

Asked what advice she’d give to aspiring artists, Sanders’ response was to “love doing what you’re doing. Love being challenged.” 

She continues to enjoy challenges by completing intricate three-dimensional puzzles such as the Tiffany lamp and Eiffel Tower that grace her living room. And although baking cookies became a new hobby following her retirement in 1986, Sanders is emphatic about using healthful ingredients and making appropriate substitutions in recipes. 

Retirement also gave her the opportunity to accompany her granddaughter, actress Erin Sanders, to auditions and sets.

“She played the brainy kid on Zoey 101,” Sanders said.

One memorable retirement activity was “joining Monty Ash’s drama group. He played in Tough Guys with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster and was involved with the Kentwood Players. Monty turned my life around. The first time I came to his class, when I was about to leave he asked me why I didn’t like myself.

“I was in shock!  I couldn’t believe I was giving that impression. I’d had no problem dealing one-on-one with people during the years I did portraits, but maybe in a group, doing improvisations, I didn’t seem as outgoing as others. I had to change who I appeared to be because with my background I had no business not liking myself.”

That comment spurred Sanders into joining the Culver City Senior Center in 1994 and volunteering to teach art, a stint that lasted 15 years. In 2000 she was chosen Senior of the Month. A graduate of the Workmen’s Circle Yiddish School in Toronto, she currently leads the center’s Yiddish Group.

“One of the reasons I encourage people to learn and speak Yiddish is to exercise the brain,” she said. “It’s important to always be learning.” 

And it was certainly a unique learning experience for Sanders’ daughter, Renay Sanders, who recalled “being hauled to work with her every day during the summer when I was off from school. Universal had animal shows, stunt shows, puppet shows, and tons of stuff to see and do, so for me it was never boring. But one of the best parts was when she had me sit for the portrait she was doing of me, in order to draw a crowd to watch her work. They didn’t know I was ‘bait’ until she turned around to face the crowd, saying ‘Who’s next?’  Then I would get up and someone always sat down for a portrait. 

“Even as a bratty kid, I knew she was special, and I was proud of her. This was Universal Studios. Those were movie stars on my mom’s wall. She also was like
Marilyn Monroe, because when I was little she wore really high, spiky heels and Marilyn-type dresses, and her hair was screaming red and she had long fake eyelashes, too. Very glamorous, and performing the magic trick of putting faces on pages all day long. I was proud of that.  Always was. Always will be. All my life, I’ve loved that my mom is an artist.”

A sentiment that is likely shared by those fortunate enough to possess Sanders’ portraits, thanks to a career that commenced with a quick-witted bluff on the Santa Monica pier.