Edwin Tanner was born in Wales in 1920, the son of a miner, his family migrated to Australia in 1923. As a student he excelled at higher mathematics, going on to study structural and civil engineering, as well as training in carpentry and as a civil pilot.

In the 1950s he moved to Hobart, working for the Hydro-Electric Commission, later moving to Melbourne where, in 1960, he set up in private practice as a consulting engineer. After this point he maintained the two professions, while also studying philosophy.

His paintings show the influence of his earlier career - Tanner has been described as a 'mathematical expressionist' due to his use of geometric lines and depiction of technical forms, sometimes compared by the critics to Paul Klee. In 1954 to public outcry the National Gallery of Victoria purchased his work The Civil Servant, an image of a grey office with no one at work, just an empty desk. This was followed by a series of works influenced by the world around him; shipyards and factories, all depicted with incomprehensible machinery and the humans reduced to mere cyphers.

Tanner's work was regularly exhibited in both Sydney and Melbourne. Ten years after his death, in 1980, a retrospective exhibition was organized at the Monash University Gallery. His works are included in the collections of all the Australian state galleries and a number of important public and private collections.