Love letter to Kentucky
This year’s Kentucky Derby Festival Official Poster Artist has quite the cooperative connection. Kim Perry’s official poster artwork was unveiled in February and set the colorful backdrop for the 2025 Derby Festival season.
“My paintings are a love letter to Kentucky—friendly, confident and inviting,” Perry says. “It is an incredible honor to be named the Poster Artist for the 2025 Derby Festival. This opportunity allows me to contribute to such a cherished event in a meaningful and lasting way. I love every aspect of the Derby Festival and getting to leave my lasting touch on it is so special to me.”
The poster highlights the events of the Derby Festival and sites around Louisville. The artwork is even featured on a Four Roses bourbon bottle.
Perry picked up a paintbrush for the first time in 2018. During a visit to a gallery in Kinsale, Ireland, a painting by Irish artist, Roisin O’Farrell, caught Perry’s eye and sparked her passion for painting.
Perry is an impressionistic realism painter. She primarily works with oils and uses a palette knife to add her own unique touch to her pieces. Her paintings are often of bourbon bottles, horse races and lineworkers—specifically Kentucky lineworkers.
During the 2025 NRECA PowerXchange and TechAdvantage conference in Atlanta, Perry painted live, displaying her artistic process while painting a lineworker from Nolin RECC.
“I absolutely loved the expression on the lineman’s face, showcasing that he truly loves his job,” Perry says of the piece. “I had several linemen come up to me at PowerXchange and thank me for creating a piece that shows their heart and passion, which was one of the greatest compliments that I have ever received.”
Perry’s art has been in Kentucky Living magazine before. In December, her painting was part of a thank you message to Kentucky’s lineworkers who participated in the state’s largest mutual aid deployment.
Learn more at KimPerryStudio.com.
