Hilyard always had the talent to transform what her eyes saw into works of art, whether it was sketching the many lines on an old man's face, as a child in her native China, or painting the landscapes of the Jersey Shore decades later.
In all of Hilyard's pieces, even the last painting friends found on her easel, there's no sign that the ugly things in her life ever outweighed the beauty.
"Everything she did was full of light," said Dorrie Papademetriou, of the Noyes Museum of Art in Galloway Township, Atlantic County.
On Nov. 3, Hilyard's husband, John Hilyard, allegedly extinguished Chun Yan's light when he strangled her inside their Egg Harbor Township home during an argument, according to authorities. A jogger found the 45-year-old artist's body in a wooded area near Fenton's Mill Creek the following day.
Authorities said there was a history of domestic violence with the couple, but that was a part of Chun Yan Hilyard's life that few knew about.
"I considered myself her closest friend. She alluded to it, but I still kick myself for not realizing it was much more physical and not just mental," said Diane Brown, of the Ocean City Arts League.
John Hilyard, 48, whom Chun Yan met while working at an Atlantic City casino, is charged with her murder. He's being held on $1 million bail. Her three boys have been temporarily living with Qin and his family elsewhere in Atlantic County, but Chun Yan's friends have planned an exhibition and sale of her work to raise money for them. More than 200 works are now on display at Noyes Museum. On Thursday, the museum will host a celebration and sale of her art.
