Meet portrait, horse and pet, and landscape artist Jessie Rasche

Biography & Statement  |  Memberships | Awards & Publications | Shows & Teaching |  Influences

My portraits of people, horses and pets, and landscape paintings have shown in galleries in South Dakota, Washington, California and Kansas. My paintings and portraits hang in homes from Florida to Washington and every region in between, as well as Canada and Ireland.

 

Member of the Institute of Equine Artists, the South Dakota Artists Alliance, the American Impressionist Society, and the Oil Painters of America

BIOGRAPHY
I was born in 1971 in the Pacific Northwest to two entrepreneurial free spirits; an artist and a plumbing contractor. I spent a lot of my early childhood at my dad’s project sites, creating sculptures with extra pieces of piping and materials, and at the Pike Place Market in Seattle where my mom had a booth, running errands for the artists, and when no customers were around, getting demonstrations of painting and drawing techniques from the artists.

I studied Fine Art at the Pacific Northwest College of art in Portland, Oregon in 1989-91 and later graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology. I believe learning is one of the great joys of life, and since college have taken many art and science classes and workshops.

After a few years as a social worker I moved back to Seattle for the high tech boom and worked as a medical illustrator and animator at the University of Washington. That was extremely satisfying.

After that I worked as a freelance scientific illustrator, and then at Microsoft as a “Media Developer”.

In 2002 I fell in love with Heath, who was in Seattle as a regional sales person for Daktronics. In 2007 our son was born. I was able to stay home with our son and paint during naps with passion and focus, and began showing my work in galleries in Washington and California.

In 2012 we moved to Brookings, where we live with a growing collection of pets (an energetic puppy, a middle aged cat and two gerbils). I have been enjoying painting the farms and people in the area. You can see a rotating display of my work at the South Dakota Art Museum gift shop. In 2013, through my acceptance into the Oil Painters of America’s prestigious Western Regional Exhibition, my work now shows in a gallery in Kansas as well.

STATEMENT
My figurative and animal paintings are intimate. They convey something personal, but also universal about the subject of the painting, and something important in their life.

I strive to portray the light and color and feeling of a scene, and to let the painting tools play a role in my paintings. I want the paint strokes to have a presence. When viewed from a distance my paintings have a relaxing harmony, but when viewed up close they are energetic and bold. Most importantly, I want to give the viewer the opportunity to add their own interpretation and meaning to my paintings.

 

AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS
3rd Place, Brookings Arts Council 2016 and 2017 for Trio

South Dakota and National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Career Development, 2016-2017

Cover story (page 1 & 2) of the Brookings Register, April 2016

South Dakota Magazine articles

1st Place, Brookings Arts Council 2013

Figure 50, chosen to represent the state of South Dakota, September 2013

Brookings artist featured at BAC, Brookings Register, July 23, 2014

Behind the Paint, Article about a 4 woman show I was in at CHASE Gallery

“[Jessie Rasche’s] impressionist paintings display motherhood, artistry and nature.”

by Annie Szotkowski, The Inlander, May 16, 2012

Interested in Impact, full page story about my Featured Artist show at Second Space Gallery

“[Jessie’s] style is representational and impressionistic and her subjects range from landscapes to figurative to still-life. She likes to illustrate an image or emotion with patterns and gestures, many brush strokes that add up to a finished piece. When you step close to one of her paintings, you can see deliberate strokes of color, and when you step back, the colors blend and become whole, encompassing a viewer with a moment of beauty.”

by Jennifer Larue, The Spokesman-Review, March 25, 2010

 

SHOWS AND TEACHING
Selected Exhibitions

2016-2018        The South Dakota Governor’s Seventh Biennial Exhibition

Show will travel to

• Dahl Art Center in Rapid City, SD
• South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings, SD
• John A. Day Gallery at the U of SD in Vermillion, SD
• Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences in Sioux Falls, SD

2013 – Present                Paintings available at South Dakota Art Museum Gift Shop, Brookings, SD and SouthWind Gallery, Topeka, KS

July – August 2014         Solo Show, Brookings Arts Council, 524 – 4th St, Brookings, SD

Dec. 2013 – Jan. 2014      Invitational Exhibition, Southwind Art Gallery, Topeka, KS

Sept. – Oct. 2013            Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition,
Southwind Art Gallery, Topeka, KS

May – July 2012             CHASE Gallery, Spokane, WA

December 2011               Randy Higbee Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA

August 2011                   Tinman Art Gallery, Spokane, WA

February 2011                Tinman Art Gallery, Spokane, WA

September 2010                                    Little SpokaneRiver Artists Studio Tour

August 2010                   Second Space Gallery, Spokane, WA

March 2010                   Featured Artist, Second Space Gallery, Spokane, WA

February 2010                Spokane Visual Arts Tour, Spokane, WA

Sept. 2009 Feb. 2008    Invited to Exhibit, Edmonds Art Walk, Edmonds, WA
Sept. & Dec. 2007

 

INFLUENCES
People I have studied under: 

Gordon Gilkey, PNCA printmaking teacher and advisor

At PNCA the (now) late print maker Gordon Gilkey was my mentor and was incredibly inspiring, and I adored him and his passion for prints. He had a great collection of prints which I believe he donated to the Portland Art Museum. He let me hold an original Picasso print on one of our adventures perusing his collection. He handed the print to me and at one glance I knew what it was… I remember the sensation of holding something so special.

Kenneth O’Connell, University of Oregon, Animation

LaNell Arndt, OPA critique

Stan Miller, watercolor workshop

Influential Artists (my favorite painters):

• Douglas Fryer, http://douglasfryer.blogspot.com
• Quang Ho, http://www.quangho.com
• Stan Miller, http://www.stanmiller.net
•  Robin Weiss, http://www.robinweissfineart.com

 

 

How to buy my landscape paintings or a portrait painting:

You can become a collector by emailing or calling me. If you would like to commission a portrait, or a painting of a specific property, or a special idea or size, please contact me.