05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How a Hong Kong digital nomad artist expanded her colour palette through travel
For Hong Kong-born artist Sarah Tse Man-heng, the ultimate studio has no walls. Instead it has beaches, vast savannahs and forest floors blanketed in flowers and fungi. An elephant might swing by, maybe even a monkey.
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Tse, 39, is a digital nomad artist who combines a love for travel with art, creating works inspired by the diverse cultures and landscapes she encounters.
A scroll through Tse's Instagram account reveals stunning paintings created in equally stunning locations.
In one photo, taken this year near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Tse is deep in her work while a seven-tonne elephant casually strolls behind her. The photo was taken at a reserve run by Elephant Crew, a charity that rescues elephants from the
cruel commercial wildlife tourism industry that have bonded with humans and would not survive in the wild, as well as calves orphaned by ivory poaching.
Tse paints elephants in Zimbabwe in March. Photo: Sarah Tse
Another photo from 2023 shows Tse painting 'somewhere in a forest' about 45km (28 miles) from the city of Tampere in southern Finland. She is working on The Magic Mushrooms, which she created during her one-month residency in the country.
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'The painting captures the mysterious and tranquil ambience of the Finnish wonderland,' says Tse over coffee at a restaurant in Hong Kong's Victoria Park.
