Jennifer Bain deconstructs her paintings into horizontal or vertical planes, deftly juxtaposing solid bands of highly saturated coloration against diaphanous botanical drawings and images of vegetation. Intended as a visual equivalent of poetic narrative, her disparate, condensed images are meant to draw the viewer through rapid shifts in location and time, effecting emotional transformation throughout the journey.

Bain’s technique originated with a series of exploratory studies on paper. In these, she collaged sections from scanned inkjet prints of her original drawings and gouaches into sequences linked by color and line. She continues to employ the process of collage to compose images shaped in large part by her hikes in Northern California’s forests and beaches. Within these compositions, she alternates painterly passages with subtractive line drawings sgraffitoed into wet paint or with details of appropriated botanical studies.

Bain received a B.F.A from the California College of Arts & Crafts in San Francisco (1982) and an M.F.A. at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985. She has been awarded such honors as the Silver Art of California Magazine Discovery Award, the Art in Public Places Purchase Award from the Washington State Arts Commission, and a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Show Award. Her work may be found in numerous private, public, and corporate collections throughout the country.