Washington, DC, based artist Jill Bateman graduated from the University of Tennessee, Phi Beta Kappa, with a B.A. in French and Economics. She studied art at both the University of Tennessee and the University of California at Los Angeles, and she holds a Certificate in Painting and Drawing from the Corcoran School of Art as well as the Washington Studio School. Jill’s work is held in private and corporate collections nationally and has been exhibited in various locations throughout the Washington, DC, area. She is currently represented by the Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC.
Artist Statement
I fell in love with drawing and painting in college and have over the years sought out artistic knowledge and experience wherever I could get it. I didn’t necessarily set out to become an ‘artist.’ I just know that when I am behind an easel, I’m happier with a sense of my life holding together in a more integrated balanced way. I find this balance exploring the grid, enjoying the tension between the organic sensitivity and fluidity of the line as it intersects the more rigid and predictable horizontals and verticals. The line with its weight, speed, assertiveness, and fragility fascinates me, and I am becoming more aware of a new synthesis of paint volume and line, again searching for that integration of geometry and dynamic movement, and activation of the surface. I often work ‘blind’ into my work, finding that if I can quiet my mind’s need to make something look ‘right,’ my hand and eye record the honest truth, innately knowing when I am touching the form. The majority of my work is figurative as I took it to heart when I was told many years ago that if I could understand and capture the essence of the anatomy of the human form, all else is contained therein.
