Darren Macpherson | The Work

Statement

Darren MacPherson loves to work in high key colours that are sometimes jarring. The insistence on the use of colour is highly intrinsic to his work. Rarely using black in his paintings, MacPherson maximises the negative white space of the canvas to enhance his finished image. 

MacPherson's Figurative style is free flowing and further inspired by the works of artists such as Gernot Kissel.  His works are drawn from a strong sense of the human condition and often enforce a chaotic and erratic nature. The female forms that he paints are bold and provocative, arresting with sublime titles, significantly exploring the allure of the female form through bold vibrant colours and stark lines.

He spends majority of his time preparing the support and development of the background visual.  In this process of reworking, the artist is able to experiment with different textures and mediums to provide a satisfactory structure to work upon. He then sketches the image direct from the paint tube without outlining or pre-sketching until the work itself speaks of its completion.

Through a process of neo-expressionism, each painting describes emotions varying from innocence and modesty to confidence and audacity. With the high key colours being crucial in achieving full expressive and communicative force, the works are often at odds with themselves, thus the beauty of line is juxtaposed upon the urban decay of the background.