[3] She studied art under Frederick McCubbin and Lindsay Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School 1895–1904.

[5] Bale came to prominence as an artist in Melbourne in the 1920s and 1930s, developing a reputation as one of Australia's pre-eminent flower and still life painters.

[5][6][7] Distancing herself from her fellow female artists who were more aligned with the suffragette movement, Bale preferred to work hard within the constraints of the traditional structures of the art world, and never left Victoria.

[3] Her friend Jo Sweatman, the last remaining female office bearer, was ousted also a few months later on an electoral technicality.

They became foundation members of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society,[3] Bale holding the position of secretary until her death.