CAFeS

Artist and musician Nikki Kvarnes was living quite happily in Nashville before she moved more than 4,000 miles across the pond and settled in Catford. So how did the Virginian native go from playing in a cult southern rock band in America to making a name for herself as an exciting emerging portrait artist in London? And how did she wind up swapping Music City for Mountsfield Park and the Catford cat?

Nikki laughs when I open with the Catford question. “Well, it’s quite exotic compared to America! But basically it’s a long story.” It’s also a fascinating one, which ties into her evolution from a guitarist and songwriter in Nashville band Those Darlins into a painter and illustrator whose unique and captivating style is garnering ever more followers on Instagram and beyond.

It began, as many things do, with an ending – the breakup of Those Darlins in 2016 after three albums and years of touring with the likes of Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and Tristen Gaspadarek. The impact of the band’s split was magnified some 18 months later, when co-founder, friend and bandmate Jessi Zazu lost her battle with cancer. It was understandably a time of transition for Nikki. One that her paintbrushes helped her get through – just maybe not in the way you might think.

“I was living in Nashville trying to work out what to do after the band had split up, and I began painting houses,” she says. “I was already doing visual art, but by day I was working with a crew of Honduran guys who painted houses.