"Banded Japan Lily" by Mabel Pugh (North Carolina, 1891-1986), oil on cardboard, artist name and title inscribed on back, circa 1920s, framed - 21" x 19"
 
Mabel Pugh was a painter, woodblock printmaker, illustrator, and art teacher. She studied at the Art Students League, the Pennsylvania Academy as well as with Charles W. Hawthorne. As the winner of the Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1919, she sketched throughout Europe. Pugh then established her professional career in New York, contributing illustrations to McCall's, Ladies' Home Journal, and The Forum and Survey Graphic. Her exhibition awards include Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1920 and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1934. At the first New York World's Fair, Pugh showed the painting My Mother. Her work was represented in exhibitions at the National Academy of Design in 1932, National Academy of Women Artists in 1934-35, and the Pennsylvania Print Club from 1929 to 1931. She was both the author and illustrator of Little Carolina Bluebonnet, a 1933 Thomas Y. Crowell Co. publication. Her best known work is her floral map of North Carolina. Three portraits of Clifford Hope, Harold D. Cooley  and Herbert Bonner are in the collection of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1936, Pugh returned to her alma mater, teaching at Peace College (currentlly known as William Peace University) in Raleigh until her retirement in 1960. Her works can be found in many collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Johnson Collection and William Peace University.