Dora Ella Watson Nichols was born 11 March 1892 in Arkansas, the daughter of James and Mary George "Mamie" Hollingsworth. Mary was widowed by 1900 and living with her four children and her parents in Donald Township, Franklin County, Arkansas. According to a brief biography of Dora by the University of Texas Arlington (UTA), she moved to Texas when she was eight years old. Mary was living with her parents and children, including Dora, in Erath County, Texas in 1910. Dora's occupation was listed as "Teacher". Mary was later married to Will J. Hicks who was employed as a "Merchant, Retail Feed Store" in Arlington, Texas in 1920. He was 73 and his wife was 50. Dora was living with her mother and stepfather, employed as a "Teacher, College".
   Dora graduated from Arlington High School in 1907. She graduated from Baylor University in 1913 with an A.B. in French and Spanish. According to Browningiana in Baylor University, Dora Ella Watson submitted a work to the Baylor faculty titled The Browning Country. This submission was part of her work for a Masters of Arts degree, which was conferred in 1917. The 1940 census indicated that she had completed 5 years of college. Her ties with the University of Texas suggest that she may have attended or been a member of the faculty of that institution, as well.

From "The Lasso", Howard Payne College

    The yearbook of Howard Payne College, "The Lasso" reported that Dora was a member of the faculty there in 1916. The 1917 Baylor Alumni Directory noted that she was teaching Spanish at Baylor and had been a "Burleson Fellow" 1916-1917. The Baylor Bulletin, Volume 22 Issue 1 (1919), Baylor University,  reported that "Miss Dora Ella Nichols is teaching Spanish at the State College, Arlington, Texas". Dora Ella Watson was a teacher at Decatur Baptist College in 1920. By 1930, about 1921 according to the 1930 census, Dora was married to Henry Milton Nichols and still living in Arlington. Her mother was living with them, then widowed. Henry was employed as a "Proprietor, Barber Shop" and Dora as a "teacher, public school".  The couple, and Dora's mother, were still living in Arlington during the 1940 census. Dora's occupation was "teacher, high school".
    According to the UTA biography, Dora started working as a teacher at Arlington High School in 1933, retiring in 1958. The biography also mentioned that she was a "noted Arlington artist". She was a painter in oils and watercolors. Where she obtained her training as an artist is not known. Along with well known local artist Josephine Mahaffey, in 1966 she founded the Starving Artists of North Texas, later the Arlington Visual Arts Association. Though few examples of her work are easily found, those are extremely well done. It would seem logical that she would be mentioned in the Dictionary of Texas Artists or Pettys Dictionary of Women Artists, but she is not. She is mentioned in Davenports Art Reference and Price Guide and on AskArt.com.
    This painting was purchased from a seller in Rockwall, Texas, which is about 40 miles from Arlington. Dora's estate left funds to the University of Texas which were used to create "The Shakespeare Club of Arlington Scholarship". The city of Arlington named Dora E. Nichols Junior High School after Dora and awards and scholarships are given in her name.
    Dora died on 19 February 1982 in Arlington. Henry Milton Nichols died in 1954 and both are buried in Parkdale Cemetery, Tarrant County, Texas.

    Martha Frances Axley was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 31 August 1898, a daughter of William Wesley and Sarah F. Norrie Axley. William was employed as a "Commercial traveler" in Hamilton County, Tennessee in 1900 and as a "Commercial traveler, dry goods shoes" in Chattanooga in 1910. By 1920, Martha was living in Manhattan, where she was employed as a "stenographer, Am. Library Assn". She was employed as secretary/treasurer for Edwin Outwater Inc., in New York City in 1922 and 1925, according to New York city directories.

Passport photo

    She applied for a passport on 5 July 1924 citing the intention to travel to England, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy. She left Europe to return to the US on 5 August 1924. She left Southampton, England to return to the US on 16 November 1932. I did not find a record of her leaving the US after her 1924 trip. She gave her New York address as Three Arts Club, 340 W. 85th St. The Three Arts Club was founded in New York in 1904, to give young women who were studying art a place to live and study. According the San Antonio Light on 7 December 1941, "Miss Martha Axley of New York, noted artist, who is teaching at Texas State College for Women in Denton, was the guest recently of Mrs. Rena Maverick Green. Miss Axley did a mural for the New York World's Fair". This article lead me to information about Martha's work as a muralist.

Martha Axley 1939 World's Fair mural post card

    According to the 5 March 1939 edition of the New York times, Martha created two murals for the Electrical Products Building called "Transportation and Industry" and "Distribution". According to the Times article one mural showed a port scene typifying distribution and the other showed means of distribution. One mural was reproduced in various ways including the post card above.  The murals "decorated" the Electrical Products building at the fair, according to a New York City guide for 1939. Axley was one the muralists selected to decorate the World's Fair buildings by artist Ernest Peixotto, according to the book Ernest Clifford Peixotto: American Artist by Ernest Peixotto. Technically, Martha was engaged by the Fair Corporation. According to Peixotto, most of the murals were destroyed when the buildings they were painted on were demolished. I found the second image of Axley's mural in the archives of the New York Public Library. 

    According to an article in the San Antonio Light newspaper of 19 September 1943, Axley was then on the faculty of the San Antonio Art Institute. The newspaper article, which announced the opening of Fall classes at the Institute, included the biographies of prominent faculty members, including Axley. According to this and other articles in this newspaper, she attended Shorter College in Georgia and spent five years at the Art Students League, New York. Her picture appears in the 1916 Shorter College year book. She traveled to Europe where she studied for seven years at institutions including the Munich Bode Schule, University of Munich, and the Itten Schule in Berlin. She was reportedly the only woman admitted to the Berlin Institute. She also traveled to Italy where she completed three murals during a five year stay. The article goes on to note that she traveled to Belgium, Holland, France, and England before returning to the US to complete murals for the New York Worlds Fair and other mural commissions. The 1943 article went on to note that she had recently been in Mexico doing research. Note the car in the lower right corner of my painting is very similar to the car in Axley's mural, which may help to date my painting. The 14 May 1944 edition of the San Antonio Light reported that, Axley had previously taught at the Richmond School of Art, Richmond, VA and had studied extensively in Europe and Mexico. Axley was a frequent lecturer to the public on specific artists and artistic styles during her tenure at the San Antonio Art Institute. Axley' photo appeared in one of the newspaper articles. She was an instructor in art composition and construction, and watercolor painting at the San Antonio Institute.

From the San Antonio Express

    Martha exhibited at the Marie Sterner Galleries in New York City in 1936. Her work was sponsored by Malcolm Vaughan of The New York American. Exhibitions of Axley's paintings and murals are mentioned several times in the late 1930s in the New York times. Axley exhibited at the fifth annual Texas General Exhibition at the Witte Museum Houston in 1943. She exhibited again at the Witte Museum in 1944. She was given a one "man" show at the Laurel Gallery in New York City according to the 27 January 1947 edition of the New York Times. She exhibited at the Art Student's League in the same year. Martha Axley is mentioned in Dictionary of Texas Artists 1840-1945 by Grauer, American Women 1939, Mural Painters in America Volume 1 by Kansas State Teachers College 1949, Women in Particular: an index to American women by Herman 1984, Who Was Who in American Art by Falk, Index of Artists Supplement by Mallett, and Index to Women of the World from Ancient to Modern Times by Ireland 1970. I have not been able to discover any information about Axley's career after the 1940s.
    Martha Axley died in September 1985 in New York City.

    Josephine Vaughn Mahaffey was born on 16 March 1903 in Hopkins County, Texas, a daughter of George and Katie Vaughn, a farming family. She was listed in the censuses of Hopkins County, Texas as "Margerie J. Vaughn" in 1910 and as "Josephine Vaughn" in 1920. The birth records of two of Josephine's children give her maiden name as "Marjorie Josephine Vaughn" and "Margery Josephine Vaughn", while other birth records give her name as "Josephine Vaughn".  She appears in the 1930 census of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas in 1930 with her husband and family as "Marjorie J.". She married Mark Mahaffey about 1922. He was employed as a salesman for a "packing house" in 1930. She seems to have fluctuated between going by her first and middle names for many years, eventually settling on Josephine.

unnamed, Josephine Mahaffey, 10" x 8", watercolor

    Josephine graduated from the College of Industrial Arts and Sciences (now Texas Woman's University at Denton, Texas. When she attended is not certain, though it must have been between about 1921 and 1934, as the school only existed as the College of Industrial Arts and Sciences from 1905 until 1934. Josephine already had three children by 1930, and I have found records of four more children born between 1930 and 1946. After graduation, she continued her studies under Sallie Blythe Mummert, Clinton King, Octavio Medellin, Kathleen Lawrence, and John Erickson. The first record I have found mentioning her work as an artist is as an exhibitor at the 1937 in the Texas Artist's Exhibition at Fort Worth. Josephine operated her own gallery in Azle, Texas and taught watercolor painting in Fort Worth. She exhibited frequently at Fair Park and the State Fair of Texas. She was honored in 1968 with the creation of "Josephine Mahaffey Day" at the State Fair of Texas. She is mentioned in Grace and Gumption: Stories of Fort Worth Women by Sherrod, Dictionary of International Biography by Kay, Index of Artists by Mallett, Davenports Art Reference and Price Guide, and Dictionary of Texas Artists, 1800-1945 by Grauer.            There was a retrospective of Mahaffey's work in July 2010 at the Forth Worth Community Arts Center. They have a web site. The following tribute to Mahaffey appeared on the FWCAC web site during the retrospective:

Remembering Josephine Mahaffey:
The Texas Dynamo

Josephine Mahaffey was born into a rural farming family in Hopkins County, Texas in 1903.  She moved to Fort Worth as a newlywed in 1922 and began receiving art instruction from Sallie Blyth Mummert.  Mahaffey's gift for rapid composition soon emerged.  She called it direct painting.  "You've got to get it down fast," Mahaffey once said, "or else you lose it."           

Mahaffey's rapid-fire brushwork and bold color selections resulted in dizzying but unfailingly coherent translations of the world around her.  For inspiration she typically looked to the faces of family and friends, the barnyard and gardens of her Jacksboro Highway farm, the shores of Lake Worth, and the urban landscapes of Fort Worth itself.  In later years, and despite her gregarious nature, she eschewed the familiar and turned inward.            

Mahaffey worked primarily in water-based paints but was proficient in the use of oil paints and encaustics when economics allowed.  In a pinch she was known to execute paintings on newsprint, brown paper bags, small bits of cardstock, roadmaps, and in one case a Styrofoam egg carton.  The choice of media and type of surface on which to work was always secondary to the act of painting.            

Over time, Josephine Mahaffey's career branched out into teaching and advocacy.  For many years she taught at the Woman's Club of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Art Center, the northside Boy's Club, and the Arlington YWCA.  Mahaffey's policy was to offer art lessons whether or not a student could pay.           

    Josephine died on 14 March 1982 in Tarrant County, Texas.

    Mrs. Nellie Stoneham was born on 3 September 1879 in Sherman, Grayson County, Texas. She was the daughter of Dr. Elijah Evans Winn and Medora F. Stith. Medora was Dr. Winn's third wife and Nellie was the youngest of his children. Nellie attended the North Texas Female College and Music Conservatory, also known as Kidd-Key College, in Sherman. At the time she attended there, this was a very well known and prestigious finishing school for women. This is likely where she received her artistic training. After graduating, she worked as a teacher and cared for her father and mother during their last illnesses. About 1920 Nellie married David Jenner Stoneham who was 20 years her senior. At some time prior to her marriage Nellie moved to Dallas where she attended business school and later sold insurance and may have met her future husband while pursuing this work in Sherman, Texas. Some of this information comes from Nellie's daughter Dora Evelyn Colley, an artist, and member of the San Antonio Watercolor Society.

    Dora Colley knew that her mother had done some work as an artist, primarily charcoal portraits, but also remembered that she had worked at home for a company during the Depression. This company would send prints to Nellie which she would then paint using oil paints. Nellie did this in the hopes of making some money for her family, but her daughter had the impression that Nellie did not make much money doing this work. These three paintings are likely represent this endeavor. Nellie also worked as Postmaster of Stoneham, Texas which is in Grimes County.

    Judi Coffey is a well known Texas artist. (Bio in progress)

    They're like potato chips! It is really amazing how Melissa can make a very small painting leap out at you. This one is such an odd size, that I have never been able to find a frame for it. I whined about this to Melissa and she was nice enough to send me a very nice bonus still life. :o)

    This is the whining related painting that Melissa was sweet enough to send me. Really well done, eh?

    This is such a classic pose and color scheme, and again great use of light and shadow, and great depth, but what really made it for me was the facial expression of the model. Something about hands bother me a little bit on this one, but I knew if I didn't buy it, it would be one of "those that got away". There are half a dozen paintings that I have missed an opportunity to acquire over the past few years, that still give me a twinge of regret. Melissa told me that the model is named Michelle and that the blue kimono belonged to her. This is the first of a new series of paintings Melissa is making using smaller brushes and capturing greater detail in the faces.

    Maybe not a style and colors I would normally go for, but the contrast of light and shadow and the facial expression of the model was too hard to resist. Not really sure I like the black background, but that is one of the things that makes it work. I'll have to live this one awhile to see what balance my feelings reach. I think finding the right frame will make a big difference to me.