Darryl was born in Cambridgeshire in 1955. As a child he began painting landscapes from the banks of the Little and Great Ouse. When he was twelve he moved to the Norfolk coast and turned his attention to “exciting dramatic skies”.

After leaving home and touring England with his sketchbook, he settled in Norwich where he studied the past Norfolk Masters such as Chrome, Cotman and Bright. Instead of The Ouse, he painted extensively pictures of The Broads and The Yare.

At eighteen he began to visit Paris, eventually living there for a year. On returning to England, he decided to open an antique shop in Lincolnshire with the ultimate aim of creating an art gallery. After a few years he returned to France to live on the Normandy-Brittany border. It was here that he found not only new inspiration for the environment but also an expression of his childhood memories.

While in France he met and worked with the then eighty-year-old Eduard Palmare, an old colleague of Miro and Picasso. They had all exhibited together at The Salon d’Hiver in the 1950s. Darryl was offered an opportunity to paint for a Parisian gallery but decided to return to England where he began teaching and working for an agency copying old master
paintings.

On returning to Cambridgeshire in 1987, he founded The Peppin Brown Art Gallery in Whittlesford, which became renowned for its restoration and framing. More teaching followed and he was able to promote many East Anglian artists.

In August 2001 The Darryl Nantais Gallery was set up in Linton jointly with his friend and patron Karl Backhurst. Since May 2003, with the full transfer of ownership and management of the Gallery to Karl, Darryl has continued his relationship with the Gallery both exhibiting his work and using his restoration and framing expertise.

Darryl’s paintings continue to reflect his great enthusiasm for everything that he sees. His love and appreciation of nature is very evident from the scenes that he creates.

Prince and Princess

Ely Cathedral

Regatta off Grandville

The River Bank

Drifting Together

Ruben's Duck

Reading by Candlelight

Reflecting Lilies

Poacher's Pool

Lilies in Bloom

The Leaping Fish

Poppies and Blue Sky

You First

Gnarled Oak

Tempestful Sea

Floating

The Broad Moorings

Sunlit Ducks

Summertime Hilltop

Daisy Bank

The Purple Dawn

The Track Between

Rockland Broad, Norfolk

By The Oak

Sailing By

The Waves

Towards The Meadow

Blue Tree

The Old Mill

Gracefully Goes

Tranquillity

Sailing off Normandy

Lady of the Great Ouse

Landscape After Claude

The Old Weir

Darryl Nantais