Born and raised in Kobe, Japan, Chihiro Pierce started painting at just four years of age, where she began her path of creativity and artistic expression. At the age of seventeen, she was accepted to the Musashino Art University where she focused and refined her love of oil painting. Upon graduation, her career began at an architectural company as a professional perspective creator.

She then moved on to growing English roses in the summer of 2000 and fell in love with their elegant beauty.  Searching for a way to capture their essence and share their beauty, Chihiro found that watercolor painting best captured the delicate, transparent, sunlit petals and her vision of them. With her new passion, she began the path of a more specialized profession in watercolor painting. Chihiro began merging her love of the natural world with her artistic styles to create botanical art. Her works were juried into several national and international shows across the globe, including the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, Northwest Watercolor Society and Fabriano in Acquarello. Most notably, her floral watercolor works were featured on the cover of Pratique des Arts and also received high acclaim in the International Artist Magazine. She has enjoyed membership in the Japan Watercolor Society since 2014.

Chihiro became a Brand Ambassador for Daniel Smith and was an art instructor in Seattle from 2017 through 2019. She is currently enjoying and painting the beautiful wild animals and landscapes that she experiences living amongst the vast and enchanting beauty of Juneau, Alaska. Her art is represented by the Annie Kaill’s gallery in Juneau, Alaska.

“I found DANIEL SMITH paints shortly after moving to Seattle. I tried out a few and was immediately impressed. The colors stretch smoothly, and are extremely clear. I slowly shifted into using paints by DANIEL SMITH, and now my whole color palette solely relies on them. I had a hard time finding the right shades of green for when I was painting the lighted parts of a leaf. Then, I found a beautiful pure green that perfectly fit the color I had in mind. I would definitely recommend these paints for painting the delicate petals of a flower because of the paints’ clarity and freshness! There are some colors that are no match to any other company, specifically Moonglow. I think this color is especially gorgeous, with hints of green even though it is a purple paint. I use it for almost all my paintings because it is so utilizable and I use it across a whole spectrum of paintings. Another color that gets me excited to paint is the color “Manganese Blue Hue”. This color is especially beautiful, and helps me paint water or glass or anything transparent in a painting. I also use it for shadows as well.”