CICELY MARY BARKER - FLOWER FAERIES

Cicely Mary Barker was born on 28 June, 1895 in Croyden, Surrey, England (South London). Her family had a long history of creativity. Her father, Walter Barker, was descended from a line of wood carvers, and he continued in this trade. In 1909, he is known to have donated a hand-carved pulpit to his family's church.

Cicely was gifted as a child, and spent hours drawing and painting. A frail child, often ill, she suffered from epilepsy which disappeared later in life. She was educated at home and showed an exceptional talent for drawing and painting from an early age. Her loving father encouraged her work, and enrolled her at age thirteen in Craydon Art Society in a correspondence course which she followed at least into her early twenties. She later became a teacher at the school. Though this was the only formal art training she had, it was the beginning of what would be a life-times work for this most talented, fae-blessed artist.

Cicely's first work was published at the age of fifteen, after she sold a number of paintings to Raphael Tuck --- a set of six postcards. The postcards were called the Elves and Fairies collection. She received international acclaim. The following year she won a poster competition sponsored by the Craydon Art Society. Soon afterwards she was granted a lifetime membership in the Society, becoming their youngest member.

Queen Mary did much to encourage the vogue for fairy paintings during the 1920's by frequently sending postcards depicting fairies to her friends.

Cicely's illustrations of flowers and plants are not only botanically accurate, but most of all, the fairies in each picture remind us of the magic and beauty of nature. You might say she was the Audubon of fairies!

Not only was she a talented artist, she also wrote a poem for each fairy.  Her first book was published by Blackie in 1923 and was followed by seven other Flower Fairy books over the years.

Her pictures of fairies and sprites are beautiful and known throughout the world and her fairy drawings and pictures were based on plants and flowers and her study of children. Cicely's younger sister, Dorothy, ran a kindergarten in a back room of their home and Cicely used the children in the school (and their relatives) as her models, carefully matching the character and appearance of each child with the character and appearance of the flower.

Likewise, every fairy costume echoes the characteristics of the flower featured in a meticulous way, and the fairies themselves range from the cheeky little Heather boy racing over the moors to the graceful Willow fairy, dreamily gazing into quiet waters.

One of her favorite models was a young girl named Gladys Tidy who came to the family house every Saturday to do household work.