About Sally Grace Bunker

I became involved in the Scouting movement here, rising to be Assistant District Commissioner for Hong Kong, which involved me in a lot of outdoor pursuits, which kindled my interest in our countryside and the incredible diversity of plants here.

I then went back into education for many years, running my own school and being Principal. My particular interest was early-childhood education, and I devised my own curriculum for international kindergartens, which impressed the Hong Kong Education Bureau - so much so that they later adopted it.

On retirement, a career-change seemed the right thing to do.

Many people who do not know Hong Kong think that it must be some sort of “concrete jungle”, devoid of any natural life. In fact, Hong Kong has some 50% of its land area National Park (a greater percentage than anywhere in the world)

Moreover, we are blessed with the most amazing biodiversity - we have for example some 390 species of native and indigenous trees. While walking the hills of Hong Kong with my dogs, stopping to untangle myself from the huge spider-webs made me pause and take note of my surroundings, and I started to record some of the plants that I saw in water-colour; It was at the time most amateurish, but this small beginning led me to become a serious water-colour botanical artist in retirement.

So, for three years I took up studying botanical art-work by distance-learning with the London School of Art, followed by the Diploma Course of the Society of Botanical Artists in UK. This meant total dedication to an art-form that was new to me; and it was this that led me to gain a Distinction for the diploma course I took.