Darren Waterston: In the Gloaming is an exhibition of new paintings reflecting on nightfall and the visions, dreams, and shadows that occupy that liminal world.
Gloaming, a word first used in the 12th century to describe twilight, takes form in Waterston’s paintings through waning light and shadow. Subtle variations evoke the changing light reflected in the artist’s abstracted forms; nebulous figures emerge from clouds of color, exploring the mutability of perception in this temporal threshold.
These new paintings assert the timeless power of tapping into the unconscious to reveal truths about individual and collective dreams. Waterston writes, “I am certainly giving a nod to French artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916) and the Symbolists before me but more so, I look to the act of painting to find a way to materialize what is unseeable–– to take a feeling, our dreams, even our collective loss, into something that says yes, I recognize that, I know what that is.”
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Apparition no. 3, 2023 oil on wood panel 16 x 16 inches
Dream, 2023 oil on wood panel 20 x 16 inches
Fugue, 2023 oil on wood panel 48 x 36 inches
Shadow, 2023 oil on wood panel 12 x 12 inches
Nightfall, 2023 oil on wood panel 8 x 10 inches
Fairytale no. 5 (Night Moths), 2023 gouache on rag paper 16 x 12 inches
The Valley, 2023 oil on wood panel 16 x 12 inches
Fairytale no. 1 (Her Sleep), 2023 gouache on rag paper 16 x 12 inches
My Ecstasy, 2023 oil on wood panel 36 x 24 inches