Mabel May Woodward spent her entire professional career in and around the Providence, Rhode Island and she summered in Ogunquit and Gloucester. She painted with Anne Carleton, Jane Peterson, Gertrude Fiske, Bessie Wessel, Charles Woodbury and other Ogunquit and Gloucester painters. She is best known for her quickly executed impressionistic brushwork using a light and bright palette. Her estate was purchased by the Shein family of R.I. in 1970 and the Vose Galleries of Boston in 1971 gave her a one-woman show. Other solo exhibitions were held at the Providence Art Club (1939); El Paso Museum of Art (1972), Texas; Chicago Art Institute; Providence Water Color Club and other locales. 

Woodward was born in Providence in 1877 and studied at RISD in 1896; at the Art Student’s League (NY) with William M. Chase, Franklin DuMond, Kenyon Cox, Arthur Dow and George Bridgman; and with Charles Woodbury at the Woodbury Ogunquit School (Maine). At the Ogunquit School she became a close friend of fellow student Anne Carleton and together they painted the shoreline and beaches in and around Ogunquit. 

Woodward was a member of the Providence Art Club; Providence Water Color Club; South County Art Association and the Ogunquit Art Association. She won a gold medal in 1908 at the Art Institute of Boston. Her work was included in the exhibition “Charles Woodbury and his students” at the Ogunquit Art Museum (1998). Her work is represented at RISD Museum and the Providence Art Club (past president) and taught painting at RISD.