Margaret Dovaston received her artistic training under Thomas William Cole (b.1857), the still-life artist and headmaster of the Ealing Art School and Arthur S. Cope (1857-1940), the famous portrait artist.  She specialized in portrait and genre painting and was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of British Artists.  Dovaston exhibited her first work at the Academy in 1908 and received three medals during her lifetime.  She was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1910 and in 1911 was elected a member of the N.B.A.

Like her contemporary Frank Moss Bennett, she became best know for her Elizabethan subjects, which were often reproduced during her lifetime.