Röling was born as the second child of Gé Röling and Martine Antonie (actually: Tonny Grolle). Her parents were both artists. From the age of sixteen, she studied drawing and painting at the Rijksakademie van visual arts in Amsterdam, where she was taught by her father, among others. From 1959, she exhibited in Europe and the United States. She is known for her large paintings and sculptures. In the 1960s, she was asked by Jeanne Roos, fashion editor at Het Parool, to make fashion drawings.[1] According to her own words, she only learned to draw properly then.[2]
In 1965 Röling won the Culture Prize of the municipality of Hilversum. Later she also made other works of art, such as the Flag Monument for the Academic Medical Center (1984) in Amsterdam, Writing hand (1975) in the top of the facade of the ING office in Leeuwarden, portraits of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus in the years eighty and the statue Non scholae, sed vitae for the University of Groningen. Röling also designed record covers, stamps, theater sets, wall paintings, posters, costumes, reliefs, films, and painted a tram. Marte Röling works with glass, metal, stone, paint or plastic, among other things.
On 17 January 2010 Röling was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.[3] In 2014, she received the Medal of Honor for Art and Science associated with the House Order of Orange from King Willem-Alexander.