Mary Edwell-Burke

Mary Edwell-Burke (1894–1988), was an Australian painter and carver.

Biography Edwell-Burke was born in Sydney on 19 June 1894. She was the half-sister of Bernice E. Edwell. She studied at the East Sydney Technical College.

In the 1920s, she exhibited with the Royal Art Society as Mary Edwards, and was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 1921 and 1922. From 1935-1945, she exhibited with the Australian Watercolour Institute as Mary Edwards.

In 1945, her portrait of Dame Enid Lyons, was rejected as "unsatisfactory" by the Federal Government’s Historic Memorials Committee. Edwell-Burke subsequently moved to Fiji and changed her name from Mary Edwards to Mary Edwell-Burke.

Edwell-Burke died in Fiji on 19 January 1988.