During 1879-1889, after returning to Melbourne, she attended the National Gallery Art Schools,[3] studying under Oswald Rose Campbell,[1] George Folingsby and Frederick McCubbin.

Stock R.I. then at Académie Julian in Paris for six months, under Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury.

In 1893 opened a studio at 119 Swanston Street where she gave art lessons and worked as a commissioned portrait painter.

At the Society of Artists Exhibition, Sydney in 1919 she displayed enamelware brooches in techniques learned at the Chelsea Polytechnic.

Throughout her life Vale exhibited at venues including the Victorian Artists Society, the Women's Art Club, the Athenaeum,[3] and held a one-woman show in 1927 at Queens Hall.