California Series at TAG Gallery is Jaime Coffey Bateman’s celebration of unique lighting in nature and the connection and adventure of a place. She travels throughout the state taking photographs and when back in her studio starts a process of editing and making notes for her paintings. Working in Egg tempera, a mixture of egg yolk, dry pigment and water, multiple layers are painted for each color and nuances between tone, transparency and vibrancy are created.
Stepping into California Series is an experience of watching light progress throughout the day. By concentrating on light as its own entity, Jaime explores how it manipulates itself around objects and is distinguished through mood. Light seems to create a dialogue between forms by defining them and their negative spaces. Embracing the idea that the edge of uncertainty is where growth happens, Jaime has ventured into a subtle narrative between the landscape and wildlife. There exists a slight edge of abstraction mixed with representation. A sense of movement, as if in a passing car, can be felt, until the viewer stops at an individual painting and experiences the quiet of the landscape, losing themselves in intimate details and stillness.
