Hilary Dunne was born in Northamptonshire in England and has lived most of her life in or near to London. She has travelled extensively, particularly in Ethiopia where she has family connections, and in other parts of Africa, as well as in Indian, Latin America and the Caribbean. All of this has had a great influence on her life and painting.

Although always seriously interested in drawing and painting, when she left school, Hilary went on to study law at Nottingham University and in London. She practised law in London, both as a partner in a large City practice and in a large financial institution, but eventually decided to move away from the law to enable herself to have more time to devote to painting.

Although a busy lawyer for many years, and largely self-taught as an artist, Hilary attended part time courses at Heatherleys and Central Saint Martins' Schools of Art in London to give herself a small part of the basic grounding she would have had from a fine art training. She has also studied mosaic in Ravenna, Italy, and at the Hampstead School of Art and the City Lit in London.

Hilary began exhibiting in 1998, first showing at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and then at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery’s "Salon de Refuses" . Her exhibition at the "Salon de Refuses" won her mention by the Art Critic in the Financial Times as a new artist to watch. Hilary works from her home in Notting Hill Gate in London.

Hilarys’ work has been used in television and theatre sets including the BBC2 television serial "Attachments" in 2004, in "Master Chef", again for BBC2 in 2006 and in Nippon (Japan) television’s London programme, September 2008.

It is in collections in Tokyo, Milan, Barcelona, the Netherlands and various Caribbean Islands.