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Focal Point: Jesse Powell
Visit Jesse Powell's Canvoo Focal Point on the web



"Jesse's work is inspiring California plein-air work. His work reminds us why the California impressionist movement needed to be revived!"

- Informed Collector

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Other Web Pages with info about Jesse Powell

Jesse Powell's Main Artist Website

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Overview:

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." -John Muir

The 2011 Irvine Museum Gold Medal was awarded to Jesse Powell for his painting "Cypress and Fog, Pt. Lobos" at the One Hundredth Annual California Art Club Gold Medal exhibition. The Irvine Museum Gold Medal is presented to the best painting that exemplifies the traditions and collections of The Irvine Museum. The paintings must meet the following qualifications: it must be a major work, generally 24" by 30" or larger; It must be a plein air painting or a studio work based on one or more plein air sketches; It must be of the highest technical quality and of the highest visual beauty.

"Cypress and Fog, Pt. Lobos" is a superb painting that expertly illustrates the tradition plein air approach to landscape painting. The drawing, perspective and light in the work are of the highest quality. This is certainly due to the masterly skills of the artist, but also to the proper use of the plein air technique, essentially to sketch the subject outdoors and to use the sketch to finish the larger and majestic final work.

(Mr.) Jean Stern, Executive Director
The Irvine Museum

www.jessepowellfineart.blogspot.com

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Biography

Jesse Powell was born in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. He has lived most of his life on the California coast, where he has developed a deep attachment and respect for a rapidly disappearing natural landscape. A third generation artist, Jesse's love for art stemmed at an early age, mostly from the influence of his father, nationally recognized artist John Powell. He now resides in Carmel, Ca.

Jesse graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in painting and drawing, and went on to study Russian Impressionism in the Republic of Georgia under the tutelage of Nicholai Dubovik, Ilya Yatsenko, and John Wurdeman. His education has continued with numerous trips to the Scottsdale Artist School to study with painters such as Matt Smith, George Strickland, and Kenn Backhaus.

Grounded in a traditional approach of executing studio paintings from numerous outdoor studies, Jesse's work has received numerous awards, and has attracted the attention of major collectors such as Joan Irvine Smith and Jean Stern, the Executive Director of the Irvine Museum, which specializes in historical California Impressionism.

Jesse's paintings have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including shows at The Laguna Art Museum, The Pasadena Museum of California History, The Pasadena Museum of California Art, and The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. His can be viewed at George Stern Fine Art in West Hollywood, Ca and Del Monte Fine Art in Carmel, Ca and online at www.jessepowellfineart.com. He is an artist member of the Oil Painters of America and the American Impressionist Society and a Signature Member of the California Art Club and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.