After studies at the California School of Design with such classmates as Xavier Martinez and Evelyn McCormick, Morgan first visited Carmel briefly in 1903. She later returned and in 1910 purchased what had been Carmel's first art studio - home of the recently deceased artist Sydney Yard. It was a painting by DeNeale Morgan which was the first to sell at the opening exhibition of the Hotel Del Monte Art Gallery in 1907. This was the first commercial gallery on the West Coast devoted exclusively to the exhibition and sale of works by California artists. Later, at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, Morgan was awarded a silver medal, and by 1928, Scribner's selected her as one of the nation's foremost female artists. Referred to as the 'Dean of Women Painters', Morgan played a formative role in the early years of Carmel-by-the-Sea,

Her lasting affection for the windswept trees, flowered dunes, and rocky shores of the Carmel-Monterey coast have been clearly revealed in her work throughout her career.