Hai-Ou Hou was born in Beijing where she received a Bachelors of Fine Art degree from the Central Institute of Fine Art and Design in Beijing. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from Towson State University, Maryland. She taught painting and design at the Hubei Fine Art Institute Wu Han, China. Hai-Ou has adapted a powerful abstract aesthetic to impressionist painting in the field, creating intensely colored, highly textured and provocative art en plein air.