[4] After completing grammar school she trained in the early 1880s at the Irving Institute, a private academy for college-bound girls, where she received her first professional lessons in art.

[3] She studied at the California School of Design in San Francisco under Thomas Hill, Ernest Narjot, Emil Carlsen, Virgil Williams, and Raymond Dabb Yelland.

[3][1] By 1891, she was painting on the Monterey Peninsula, where she found inspiration and a wealth of subjects for her Impressionist landscapes, and sometimes stayed with her artist-companion Mary Brady in Pacific Grove.

[12] At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago she displayed two oils at the Palace of Fine Arts: Mission at San Luis Rey and Morning at Giverny.

[3] After the death of her father in 1906, she was compelled to spend more time with her mother in San Francisco, where she maintained her primary residence until her permanent move Monterey c. 1919.

Like their French counterparts, California Impressionists attempted to capture the light of a particular moment, both groups emphasizing the transitory nature of life.

[5] Notable works by McCormick include Along the French Coast, Wheat Fields - Giverny, and Carmel Valley Pumpkins (ca.1907) owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.