A classically trained
artist of the Brandywine school of romantic realism,
with thematic and stylistic ties to Howard Pyle, Harvey
Dunn, and N.C. Wyeth, Waterhouse consistently found
himself drawn to those assignments which allowed him
to fill his canvas with a plentitude of action...drama...and,
most of all, people. In the late 1960's when the opportunity
to go to Vietnam as a civilian combat artist came along,
Waterhouse never hesitated for a moment.
His first tour in country
produced over 470 on-the-spot drawings. The artist hitched
rides in anything that moved, roaming all over Vietnam,
from the Delta to the DMZ. The substantial body of art,
which resulted from Waterhouse's three tours of duty
in Vietnam, brought him to the attention of officials
at Marine Headquarters in Washington, DC, who were looking
for the best of "A Few Good Men" to illustrate
their definitive history book called "Marines in
the Revolution" in commemoration of the bicentennial.
So, at the age of forty-seven, some twenty-six years
after serving as a young enlisted Marine in Iwo Jima,
Waterhouse was called to serve our country once again.
This time, however, instead of picking up a rifle, he
picked up a paintbrush.
His mission: to be the
first, and only, USMC Artist-In-Residence in the two
hundred year history of the USMC. For the next eighteen
years, Waterhouse set about to visually document the
history of Corps and country. Waterhouse explains:
I happen to have the
most marvelous task to perform. I look upon my assignment
as Artist in Residence US Marine Corps, not as a job,
rather a Mission. I believe each of us receives some
gifts, and an inborn desire to leave something in return.
I like to think this one is mine, and has been and is
worthy of devotion of every waking moment to this effort.
Waterhouse's work can
be seen in museums, galleries, national parks, federal
buildings, battleships, and historical sites around
the country, as well as military installations all around
the world. A Waterhouse design, emblazoned on a T-shirt
was even donned by a space-orbiting astronaut. Along
the way, the artist has been honored with many awards,
including the Distinguished Service Award of the Marine
Corps Historical Foundation and the Legion of Merit.
One doesn't just look
at a Waterhouse painting. One experiences it. Every
inch of his paintings is completely detailed. The people
he paints seem alive, caught mid-breath, mid-movement.
You can almost hear the roar of the canons, the bark
of dogs in a marketplace...feel the wind, the sea, and
the rocky earth underneath. One looks, and knows---for
that instant---that this is how it was.
As no other artist of
his time, Waterhouse combines the experiences of Marine,
historian, combat artist, painter, illustrator, author,
and sculptor---working in every medium---to produce
the crowning achievement of his creative life's work.
