[2] She studied at the East Sydney Technical College.

In the 1920s she exhibited with the Royal Art Society (as Mary Edwards).

[3][4] From 1935-1945 she exhibited with the Australian Watercolour Institute (as Mary Edwards).

[1] In 1944 Edwell-Burke, along with Joseph Wolinski, brought legal action to overturn William Dobell's 1943 Archibald prize for his portrait Mr Joshua Smith, claiming the image was more a caricature than a portrait.

[5] In 1945 her portrait of Dame Enid Lyons, was rejected as 'unsatisfactory’ by the Federal Government’s Historic Memorials Committee.