Selected Essays & Reviews
Darren Waterston
To look at Darren Waterston’s paintings is to see the heavens reflected upon the earth’s surface. A molecular repertoire of weightless forms floats over seas of milky washes and smoky veils of glaze. Waterston uses a spontaneous painting technique to arrive at these forms, undertaking the creative process like a meditative act. They emerge on their own, as mysterious traces left behind the improvisational dance of a brush, or rivulets of varnish that, upon accumulation, carve out organic patterns upon a painting’s smooth surface.
Over the years, the artist has been gravitating towards abstraction in order to arrive at a visual vocabulary that can simultaneously reference the elemental and the celestial. Observe one painting, and your eyes will trick you into seeing a network of electrons and protons circumnavigating a nucleus; observe another painting, and what appear to be dew drops on a spider web will metamorphose into patterns of stars dotting a night sky.
While Waterston acknowledges scientific observation, his work is largely driven by inquiries of a metaphysical nature: How do the origins of life impact our consciousness? How do the exquisite geometries embedded in nature affect or our notions of spirituality?
Hence the artist’s spontaneous and intuitive approach to the painting process, one that may yield precious clues as we ponder these types of enigmas.