[2] Born at Makuri near Pahiatua, New Zealand, she was the daughter of Walter Edward Charles Tylee and his wife Katherine Anne née Perry.
[1] Her aunt, Alice Lethbridge Avery (née Perry) was also a New Zealand artist.
[3] Tylee studied in New Zealand with D. K. Richmond at Miss Barber's Academy in Wellington.
[7] From 1926 to 1929 she attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London[8] and in 1937 at Académie Colarossi in Paris.
Works by Tylee are held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa including: Crimson plums (1953);[9] Village in the hills (c. 1930);[10] Mount Tarawera, New Zealand (1935);[11] and Rooftops (c.