Born & raised in Kingston, Ontario, Hilda Oomen completed a BFA from Queen's University in 1984,
followed by a summer in the Young Resident Artists program at The Banff Centre.

After almost a decade living and working as an artist in Toronto she moved to a rural area to pursue her
work in landscape & still life painting and also to pursue gardening on a larger scale. She has received
several grants in support of her work and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions.

She lives and works near Kingston, Ontario.

"I have spent years working in gardens, both as a means of support and, at times, as a creative
substitute for painting itself. The imagery and experience of that time continues to be the inspiration
for my work.
In earlier years I worked in mainly large country gardens overlooking expansive rural landscapes
throughout the Mulmur Hills of Ontario. My paintings flowed directly from that experience; large
landscapes overlaid with smaller mosaic-like floral insets. Over the years the larger landscape fell
away and the painting's subject became predominately flowers, sometimes combined with china, fruit
and other still life objects, set against a painterly backdrop. There is a more intimate and personal
focus in my use of still life as subject matter. The paintings have become increasingly smaller over the
years. It allows for a simplified and strong focus and the ability to paint quickly and daily.
I am obsessed with capturing that beauty of flowers in strong light and simplifying in paint the complex
interplay of light, colour, form and reflection.”  Hilda Oomen (2018)