EARLY WORK

Hilary developed a passion for drawing at an early age and left school at the age of 17 to go to Art School. Because she was so young Hilary initially attended classes at Westminster School of Art on a part- time basis, but then she did the Foundation course. 

She studied wood engraving and perspective with Frank Medworth who taught at Westminster until December 1934. From 1935 Hilary studied under Clifford Webb (wood engraving), Mervyn Peake (antique drawing) and Mark Gertler. 

In 1937 she left Westminster to go to The Central School.

Hilary's woodblock print  "Heaven, Hell and Purgatory" was included in the annual Exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1939.

Her mother wrote in a letter on December 8th that: "Hilary has two etchings (sic) in a London show, one a drawing of Heaven and Hell and Purgatory with herself at the crossroads." More recently this print was included in the Society's Centenary Exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and is reproduced in Simon Lawrence’s history of the Society 'Spitsticks and Multiples' (Fleece Press 2022)