ILona was born and raised in the Ottawa area. Now retired from a 36 year career with the Canadian Hydrographic Service she lives on a hobby farm near picturesque Perth, Ontario. She has enjoyed a lifelong passion for her animals, dogs, horses and alpacas. Her pets are often the subjects of her paintings, as are the flowers from her gardens. She has studied art with several local artists, and then she branched out on her own.

Ilona is also pursuing  a new art form called needle felted painting. She has five adorable alpacas and has felted using the fibre from her own animals. Not all of the fleece sheared from alpacas is long enough to spin into knitting wool so this art form provides a creative way to use the shorter fibres. the following pictures show her alpcacas and a piece that she created wherein each alpaca is felted out of their own fleece.