2007 series

Mateo Jaimes Resume

Welcome to the first batch of new paintings updated to this site for 2007. Although it is simply called the 2007 series, this name may be revised as more paintings are posted, and a more coherent arrangement is presented to you, the viewer. There will be several more additions in the weeks ahead, so please check in from time to time.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the newest group of paintings is that there were no preset ideas when I started them almost 3 years ago. In a departure from what I had done in the 2003 Eucalyptus series, which was initiated with a definite idea in mind, the 2007 paintings, as a whole, seem to provide a launching point to at least three other series of paintings (which I will try to fully represent in the future). For example, the painting "Sea life on white", represents experiments in monotype printing directly onto the painting surface (wood panel), as well as painted forms using a brush. The results were much more delicate than other works produced at the same time. This, I feel, will inspire me to create a new group of paintings that explore the initial idea of that particular piece.

For now, I hope you will enjoy this very exciting moment of my exploration with paint.

Eucalyptus series: 2003

Each painting comes from a single moment of illumination while walking through a canyon forested with Eucalyptus trees. It had rained earlier that morning, and as the sun rose over the opposing canyon wall, pure colors bejeweled the normally drab gray bark. The light of the sun, slowly moving up the landscape of trees, contrasting with gravity’s downward pull at the film of rain on the skin and leaves of each tree, and all the while the endless ocean surge of the entire forest from the morning breeze created a heart stopping moment of pure color.

Like so many similar moments in life, the brilliance of the living forest did not seem real; thus forcing an attempt at recording a fleeting glimpse. (How strange, I thought, how most waking moments--the uneventful monotony of the everyday--become associated with “real life,” and the few moments of diamond clarity are remembered as if one was walking through a dream.)

Humbly trying to capture that passing moment in the forest canyon, not only did I paint what I saw, but also manifestations of what I felt. These recent works (2003) are at once abstract paintings, nature paintings, and paintings of communication; in this case, nature quietly speaking its majesty.

The square paintings are 24 x 24 x 1 1/2 inches. The rectangular paintings are 48 3/4 x 13 x 1 1/2 inches. All paintings are a combination of several layers of acrylic paint, then oil paint, sanded between layers, and finished with at least three layers of gloss polyurethane. All paintings are on wood panel.

Older paintings: 1998 - 2003

These paintings are from an older series that I call, for lack of a better title, the “ocean communication series.” The series examines forms of communication an imaginary south sea culture of anytime near pre-colonial history might create. The colors and symbols this hypothetical culture utilized to express their unique view of the world make these paintings interpretations of their cultural existence.

The idea came from, of all places, a bumper sticker which read “100 % Samoan.” For me, the meaning--beyond the aspect of cultural pride--developed into a broader range of ideas. What if one were to take the statement a step further? What if a 21st century culture, for example, refusing to communicate through absolutely any colonial influence, denied even the English language, and communicated through a loose group of symbols cultivated from their surroundings and their experiences, and, of course, the wisdom gained from those experiences?

The paintings in this series are of various dimensions, are works in acrylic and oil, and all but a few are finished with gloss polyurethane. All paintings are on wood panel.