Painting on Mylar

I am working in abstraction with a vocabulary of recognizable natural forms. These works draw upon two natural but disparate processes: the gestural unfolding and leafing of a branching tree limb, and the physical properties and behaviors of paint pigments.

The process is meditative; I pay close attention to each element as I rebuild it. The images come from my photographs of trees and leaves, which I painstakingly draw onto large sheets of translucent drafting film, taking care to stay true to the original images without editing the forms. I then mix two pigments to an ink-like consistency and shape each element from a puddle of paint across the film’s nonabsorbent surface to. As this paint mixture dries, the pigments reassert themselves, separating and forming unexpected and distinctive abstract patterns.

My intention is to create conditions under which I can observe the laws of nature. Form is dematerialized and re-assembled as a means of exploring color, the aliveness of a natural gesture made of repeated yet individual forms, and a felt-sense of the passage of time.

Tabs based on width of painting:

Jackie Battenfield - Oct 7, 2012 | Painting