Painter and musician, Jim Darlington is a native South Carolinian who has spent a lifetime immersed in the arts. He continues to receive award recognition for his portraiture, representational and abstract works in both oil and watercolor. Darlington's body of work encompasses many subjects: lush and steamy landscapes and architectural vignettes, rich in hues that capture the moods of the lowcountry, demure nudes, and abstracts that result in contemplation of the meaning beyond the canvas. The challenge of developing abstract compositions -- taking a subject that has inspired him and transforming it into something that the viewer will consider and relate to emotionally, rather than simply knowing that “well, it’s a house” is an area that Darlington particularly enjoys. In his abstract pieces he strives to keep the complimentary colors in the center of the canvas, pulling the viewer’s eye in, with the colors on the outside being simpler, purer color with some tonal variation. However, portraiture is the area that he enjoys the most; often combining features from several models and rendering an image of a person created in the artists mind. Among other honors and awards, Darlington recently won the top prize in Magnolia Plantation's competition, "Girl with the Gold Earring", adding the painting to the permanent collection of Magnolia Plantation. Noted national publication, American Art Collector featured Darlington's figurative work in the May 2009 issue. Jim is a member with Excellence in the SC Watercolor Society and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. He has worked as a journalist and an art critic in the past and you can also see the musical side of the artist if you catch a performance of his band "Minimum Wage", a local favorite in Charleston and the Sea Islands.
