A. M. E. Bale was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1875 and studied under Frederick McCubbin and L. Bernard Hall at the National Gallery School, Melbourne. She distinguished herself as one of Australia's pre-eminent flower and still life painters of the early 20th Century. Alice Bale was the founding secretary of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society, she established the A. M. E. Bale travelling Scholarship and Art Prize, awarded annually to Australian artists who have demonstrated talent and achievement in traditional styles.