Darcy Whent
About
Darcy Whent is a Welsh artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, and mixed media installation. Rooted in personal history, her work explores themes of memory, motherhood, identity, and emotional conflict, often blurring the lines between truth and fiction through the use of autofiction. Whent’s imagery is rich with narrative, frequently drawing on the emotional residue of childhood and the psychological tensions of womanhood. Her compositions are intimate and symbolic, weaving together real and imagined motifs to evoke a shared emotional landscape.
Currently based at Pennywell Studios in Bristol, Whent holds a BA in Fine Art from Bath School of Art. She was shortlisted for the Freelands Painting Prize in 2023 and has exhibited nationally, including a recent solo show in London titled On All Fours. Her practice is also informed by her Welsh identity and interest in folklore, often incorporating mythic or rural iconography to interrogate the stories we inherit and the ones we tell ourselves.
"I primarily work with painting, drawing, and mixed media installation. These mediums allow me to explore themes like memory, motherhood, identity, and emotional conflict. I often incorporate autofiction and narrative storytelling into my practice, using materials and imagery that evoke personal and collective memory—sometimes blending figuration with symbolic or folkloric elements, especially drawn from my Welsh identity. I also experiment with surfaces and textures to evoke psychological tension and intimacy."
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Darcy Whent
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Darcy Whent
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3 questions on inspiration with
Darcy Whent
We're asking artists to choose one notable person, place and object that has inspired them in their journey so far. We're mapping inspiration at a scale never attempted before
Person
One of the most notable figures who has inspired my work is Paula Rego. Her fearless approach to storytelling, particularly around themes of female experience, power, and psychological complexity, has had a lasting impact on how I think about narrative in art. I admire the way she confronts taboo subjects with tenderness and rage, often using fairy tale or folkloric frameworks to speak to very real emotional truths. Like Rego, I’m drawn to the tension between innocence and violence, and the way domestic spaces can become sites of both safety and control. Her work gives permission to be raw, political, and deeply personal all at once.
Place
A place that has significantly shaped my work is my family home in Wales, particularly the surrounding rural landscape. It’s a space layered with memory, grief, and imagination. The fields, horses, and overgrown gardens often reappear in my work—not as direct representations, but as emotional textures that ground my exploration of childhood, motherhood, and identity. It’s a place where time feels folded, and I often return to it in my practice when exploring how the past lingers in the present.
Object
As for an object, a small ceramic horse I’ve kept since childhood continues to inspire me. It’s chipped and faded, but I return to it again and again in my drawings and paintings. It represents both play and fragility—something once loved and handled, now slightly broken but still standing. For me, it embodies the kind of emotional layering I try to bring to my work: objects that carry memory, narrative, and symbolic weight all at once.
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