Known for her portraits, her work also includes landscapes and is reflective of life in Canterbury and the South Island of New Zealand.
While at the school she worked with Cecil Kelly, Archibald Nicholl, F. A. Shurrock, Richard Wallwork and Leonard Booth.
[3] Fife's work has been included in several art society exhibitions at Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill and Nelson, as well as the Gallery of the New Zealand Academy in Wellington.
In 1958, five of her paintings were included in an exhibition by the Auckland City Art Gallery entitled Eight New Zealand Painters,[4] exhibiting alongside W. A. Sutton, Milan Mrkusich, Rita Angus, Clifford Murray, Michael Nicholson, Sydney Thompson, and Dennis Knight Turner.
The exhibition toured cities and towns throughout the country and provided public exposure to the New Zealand painters involved.