Born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Mitchell studied at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary; at the Banff School of Fine Art (1942); at the Hampstead Art Centre, London, England; but was mainly self-taught. Working in oil, acrylic, pen and ink and watercolour, her naive colourful paintings depict the Alberta landscape and city scenes often combined with floating figures and animals. Her work is full of humour and fantasy. She died in Calgary, Alberta. A solo retrospective was held at the GM in 1977. Her work is in the collections of the AGW, LAG, NGC, and WAG.