Quick was a painter, wood engraver and designer.
Born in Penzance, Hilda Quick's early years were spent at Penrose Terrace.She studied wood engraving under Noel Rooke at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and continued her studies in Paris. Her student work - scenes of Normandy and Brittany were exhibited in London and at the Newlyn Art Gallery.
She returned to Cornwall and lived with her parents. In September 1925, the Minutes of the Newlyn Art Gallery record that Miss Quick’s ‘tint’ was to be used as the wall colouring in the exhibition rooms. In 1936 she was co-opted to the Arranging Committee for the Cornish Loan Exhibition of that year. Her exhibition piece at Newlyn Art Gallery for 1937 was 'Amalveor Downs'. She is known for having created designs and wood engravings for the Minack Theatre programmes.
After WWII, she became a well-established author and woodcut illustrator of bird studies, of which Marsh and Shore: Birdwatching on the Cornish Coast (1948) is an especially fine work. She moved to St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly in 1951 and authored the Birds of the Scilly Isles in 1964. Her illustrations of birds are well observed and capture the distinct personalities, behaviours, and habitats of different species.
You can find more information on her page on the Cornwall Artist's index here.
The archives of University of the Arts London hold a large collection of her works.
