Margaret Tomkins

American, (1916–2002)

Margaret Tomkins was born in Los Angeles, California in 1916. After finishing high school, Tomkins attended the University of Southern California where she ultimately earned an MFA and was a member of the California Watercolor Society. In 1939, Tomkins moved to Seattle where she became a professor at the University of Washington. While in Seattle, Tomkins met her husband, James Fitzgerald, a leading sculptor in the Northwestern United States. Tomkins became involved in the Federal Arts Project in 1941 and taught classes at the Spokane Art Center, where her husband was the director. In the mid 1940s, after the birth of their first child, Tomkins and her husband began working in furniture design and ceramics, selling functional pieces for a small profit.

After her husband’s death in 1973, Tomkins stopped displaying her work, but continued painting until her death in 2002 on the San Juan Islands, where she and her husband built a home and studio in 1948.