Ethel Pye studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in central London and then exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1910 and with the Society of Women Artists on a regular basis from 1949 onwards. She was elected an Associate of the Society of Women Artists in 1950. Both Sybil and Ethel Pye attended the classes of Thomas Sturge Moore. Later Ethel Pye told Sturge Moore's wife, Marie Appia, that her sculptures "did not exist" until Sturge Moore had seen them; she also created costumes and masks based on Sturge Moore's designs for staging of his verse-plays. The family lived at Priest Hill, near the Olivier sisters (with whom Ethel and Sybil Pye became friends) in Limpsfield.
