Mary’s affiliation with Teschemakers arose in 1991, when she came to work whilst it was being run as a Conference Centre by the Sisters. Her artistic career took off after she was invited to attend an international art school held on the property. The school attracted art lovers from all over the world, with tutors from England, America, Australia and New Zealand coming in to share their expertise.

When Teschemakers closed as a conference centre in 1996, Mary stayed behind to look after the grounds and by 1996 was painting abstract works in a room in the school. Mary used the land and view of the mountains and sea from her cottage at Teschemakers as inspiration for the pictures.

Since then, she has had a successful artistic career. Some of her achievements include winning the Hope and Sons Award at the Otago 150th anniversary exhibition in 1998, Otago gold by the regional council, second place at the Totara Art Awards and finalist three times in the Telecom Awards. Since 1993, her work has also been exhibited every year in galleries such as the Forrester Gallery, and Cleveland Living Art Centre.

Mary was invited in 2000 to exhibit her works at an international art exhibition in Rome. She was one of 15 Dominican artists worldwide taking part in the exhibition, and represented the Asia-Pacific region along with a Korean and Japanese artist. In 2014, she was the only New Zealander selected to produce artwork for the closing ceremony of the 800-year jubilee of the Dominican Order at the Santa Sabina Basilica in Rome.