Oceanside Village 1954, watercolor & gouache on paper, 15 x 22 1/2, signed lower left: Margaret Webb Dryer '54, Dreyer is remembered as an influential Houston arts advocate, as well as a renowned American painter, muralist, activist, teacher, and gallery owner. Dreyer is considered one of Houston’s first major abstract expressionists, as well as one of the city’s first accomplished watercolorists. Dreyer was born in Illinois and moved to Houston at the age of eleven. Her comprehensive fine arts education included studying at numerous institutions in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Dreyer’s teaching career began in Houston at the Ripley House (1940s), after which she served as director of the fine arts program for Houston’s Parks and Recreation department (1950-1960). At the same time, Dreyer founded a highly influential organization that commissioned local artists to paint murals throughout the city, in both public and residential spaces. In 1959 she opened Dreyer Galleries in Houston, where she held exhibitions featuring work from Texas, Mexican, and South American artists; Dreyer would run her gallery until her death. Oceanside Village bespeaks not only a mastery of the medium, but also a thoroughly modernist sensibility and the influence of abstraction.