Mabel Frazer

Mabel Frazer is a Utah artist most well-known for her landscapes of the west painted in Realistic, Fauve, and Expressionist styles. Her pieces depict scenes of farm life as well as expansive desert lands and well-known landforms like the Grand Canyon. While her works were not popular during her lifetime, they have since become appreciated and have been featured in shows in Washington, D.C. and New York. Frazer also had significant influence on Utah’s art education scene. She joined the University of Utah art staff in 1920 and remained there for 33 years. She was responsible for much of the expansion of the art department and was a firm believer in her students developing the fundamental aspects of good art.

Mabel Frazer was born on August 28, 1887, in West Jordan, Utah. However, she lived there only a short time before her family moved to Beaver, Utah. She became devoted to art at an early age and made it one of the main focuses of her life. After graduating from Murdock Academy, she moved to Salt Lake City to attend college at the University of Utah. Her first teacher was Edwin Evans and she remained friends with him for many years after.

After completing her education of the University of Utah, she took a job as a teacher at an Ogden high school, but she only remained there long enough to finance a trip to study in New York. She finished her studying in New York but would return there again to study before too long. It was after the completion of this second trip to New York that she was approached by the President of the University of Utah who asked her if she would be willing to join the art faculty at the university. She accepted and remained in that position for over three decades. She was very devoted to her job at the university but did take occasional breaks to study in Italy. These trips to Europe did affect her artistic style somewhat, but Mabel always maintained that she was an “American artist.” She continued to paint and remained active in the art world until her death at the age of 94.