Hi, I'm Hilda.

The short story

I grew up in Hong Kong. The first painting I ever sold was made on a tray table in a bus.

I trained at Hong Kong Polytechnic University — Environment and Interior Design, three years of architectural drafting and floor plans, learning to see space the way a building does. After PolyU I worked as an interior designer in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Germany. Six years of corporate, ten cities, three apartments packed in a hurry.

The trip that became a book

In 2019 I quit, bought a one-way ticket, and backpacked across Europe with a watercolor box and a sketchbook. Lviv. Lisbon. Cologne. Amsterdam. Berlin. Santorini. The trip lasted longer than I planned.

I came back with 246 pages of paintings and notes. That became Hilda's Europe Canvas 歐洲旅圖 — a hand-illustrated travel memoir, in Chinese, still on the Etsy shop ↗.

The studio now

Now the studio is small. One person. Schmincke watercolors, Arches 300gsm cotton paper, sable brushes. Every piece in the shop is hand-painted. No filters. No AI. No shortcuts.

When I'm not painting I'm answering email — every commission inquiry, every postcard order, every 'hey what brushes do you use' message. I read them all myself.

A black cat and a tiger

The Love Story series — five postcards — is the closest thing to a brand mascot I have. A black cat (me) and a tiger (my husband), told as a five-chapter children's-book illustration: Penang where we met, Phong Nha caves, Bali where he proposed in a rice paddy, Macau on our first anniversary, Da Nang beach as husband and wife.

It started as a Valentine's gift. Now it's the painting people email about most.

What's next

In May 2026 we're moving to Vancouver. Husband, brushes, our first child on the way (due late October). The studio comes with us — boxes and pigment and one nervous artist hoping the next city paints as well as the last.

The first painting from the new studio will be Hong Kong, of course. The harbour, from memory. You always paint the city you grew up in last.