Elanor Colburn was Ruth Peabody’s mother. When they moved to Laguna Beach in 1923, they became active members of the Laguna Beach Art Association and shared a home studio.

In Primitive Mother (Primordial Days in Palm Springs), Colburn depicts an indigenous mother and her children in a natural, yet abstract setting.

In The Cook Book, Peabody painted a woman sitting at a dining room table, with a cook book in hand, and table set with a pitcher, bowl, bottle, plant, and what appears to be two eggs.