How Hong Kong runner gets inspired by the great outdoors
Visual artist Elsa Jean de Dieu runs Hong Kong’s trails for enjoyment and to free her mind in order to let her creative juices flow
Elsa Jean de Dieu, a French painter and visual artist who has called Hong Kong home for almost 10 years, has two favourite canvases: walls and mountains.
Founder and lead artist of Elsa Jeandedieu Studio, she has decorated high-profile commercial and residential spaces all over the world, for clients including the French embassies in Brussels and Oslo, Delphine Arnault of LVMH Group, and Princess Caroline of Monaco. In Hong Kong, the latest creations of her three-woman artistic team include a mural for Pure Yoga, table tops for the new Tate Dining Room and Bar on Hollywood Road, and a street-style mural for The Pond restaurant in Elements.
Jean De Dieu has also left her masterstrokes on the mountains. As a competitive trail runner with team UGlow, she has notched wins at The 9 Dragons 50 kilometre race, the Moontrekker 43km women’s pair event and the Translantau 50km in the past year.
Her work and play feed off each other. “Looking at the beauty of Mother Nature while running inspires me a lot creatively. I love the colours and my eye picks up many of the details around me – patterns, textures, shapes, etc. Trail running helps me make space in my mind to allow the flow of creative ideas.”
