"Each Day the sun gets up and, then crashes into the sea. It creates a space for anything to be done. So I do it -- painting."

Over her lifetime, Margaret Tomkins remained an influential presence in the Pacific Northwest while earning and occupying an important role as a significant American Abstract painter.

She was born in Los Angeles in 1916 and received her M.F.A. at the University of Southern California and became an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Washington. Later marrying painter and sculptor James FitzGerald.

Margaret Tomkins was an abstract painter whose work reflected her environment, social concerns of the time and her personal experiences both aboard and locally.

Margaret Tomkins over the years has been included in important exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, to name a few.