Ila Mae McAfee was raised on her family's ranch south of Gunnison, Colorado. In 1916, she graduated from Gunnison High School and then spent time in Los Angeles at the West Lake School of Art and the Haz Art School

Returning to Colorado, where she studied art at Western State College, McAfee earned her BA degree in 1919. In 1924 in Chicago, she became a student of muralist James E. McBurney, and in 1925 she attended the National Academy of Design as well as the Art Students League the next year. She worked as an illustrator and painter of miniature animals.

In 1926, McAfee married fellow artist Elmer Page Turner and that same year she visited Taos, New Mexico. Two years later, she and her husband settled there, and in 1929 they built the White Horse Studio, which continued to be her residence until 1993, when she moved to Pueblo, Colorado.

In Taos, she became known for her pueblo paintings but her fondness for horses and other animals was evident in her colorful ranch scenes and landscapes.