Influenced by art and design of the late 19th and 20th century while using modern materials to create her unique style for which has become so well known for.
A Welsh artist, born 1974 in Rhyl, North Wales. Kerry Darlington was heavily inspired by magical fairy tale picture books and stories during her childhood, and had a particular love for Arthur Rackham’s intricate pen and ink work. This influenced her to take a degree in Illustration, with intentions of becoming a children’s book Illustrator. Following this she discovered ‘Art Nouveau’ and the Pre-Raphaelite artists’. She found this work so hauntingly beautiful that it absorbed her and it still has a profound effect on her own art.
For the last seven years Kerry has built a reputation for her original, decorative designs which became hugely popular, focusing primarily on trees and nature.
She recently took the decision to release her book Illustrations as Unique Edition prints. Her first being the ‘Midnight Garden’ which sold out within a month and her second release ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’ was so popular that it sold-out rapidly before obtaining high values on the secondary market. Her book illustration work recently included imaginative illustrations adapted from ‘Peter Pan’ by J.M. Barrie and ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ by Enid Blyton.
In May 2012 she was awarded ‘Best-Selling Published Artist’ at a ceremony by the Fine Art Trade Guild and again recently in 2014.
On her original pieces, Kerry Darlington works with texture, acrylics and resin. She works in layers to build up depth and create more light. She uses resin as a medium rather than a varnish on the original paintings which lets light penetrate the layers and illuminate them as if they were at the forefront.
With her ‘Unique Editions’, whilst in essence they are prints, each one is some way unique. She creates small 3D additions which are hand-worked individually and adhered to the print. The background is also hand embellished, and all the work has resin hand-applied, making each print look like an original painting. The effect is so good it is often mistaken for original work.
Building on her success she is releasing an ongoing varied selection of her figurative, abstract and illustrative pieces as ‘Unique Editions’ to fulfil demand. This work is of a more personal nature which she has been working on privately over the last 7 years and which will form much of her work today and in the future.
Her work has also recently been featured on Channel 4’s television series Posh Pawn – Paul and Jackie Ellingworth offered the 7ft x 4ft portrait by the Welsh artist. The piece hung in the couples staircase of their home for the past two years and was bought with the help of a small family inheritance and redundancy money Jackie received when she lost her job three years ago.
In early 2012 they became proud owners of a painting titled ‘Sakura’ (Japanese for cherry blossom) which came from Darlington’s private collection at a total cost of £25,000. Although the couple never wished to part with Sakura, an unfortunate run of bad luck inevitably forced them to contemplate pawning their precious painting to ease their financial difficulties.
The couple were informed that artist Kerry Darlington wanted to do a unique limited edition print of ‘Sukura’. When artists produce limited edition prints of their work, the increased exposure can cause the value of the original to gain significantly. The outcome could not have been better for the couple as their beloved painting could fetch around £90,000+ in the next few months.
Kerry Darlington has had an unbelievable journey over the last 5-6 years. Like any artist she started at the bottom selling works on eBay for a very small sum and moving forward with her imagination and abilities to creating a series of stunning paintings and unique limited editions.
If you would like to view and buy unique editions by Kerry Darlington click here
