A painter, Maeckelberghe was born and worked in Penzance. Her painting focused on the landscapes and coastlines of Cornwall.
Maeckelberghe studied at the Penzance School of Art as a teen, and then the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, Wiltshire from 1949-52. At Corsham, visting tutors from Cornwall's modern art communities included Terry Frost, Peter Laynon, and Bryan Winter. William Scott, the head of painting at Corsham for whom she had worked as a studio assistant, was a major influence on her approach to landscape and coastal painting.
After finishing art school, she taught art in London, where she met her Belgian-born husband Willy Maeckelberghe. The family lived in Gibraltar whilst Willy completed his military service. They returned to Penzance in 1958, where she returned to painting full-time. She was involved with the Newlyn Society of Artists throughout her life and showed with the Penwith Society from 1961 onwards, becoming its chair in 1997.
She became a bard of the Gorsedh Kernow in 1997, taking the name Lymner, the Cornish for 'painter'.