How did you develop your unique style?
Jessie Rasche: I’m teaching a workshop right now on how to find and develop your authentic artistic voice, so I’ve been thinking about this a lot! Finding your true and authentic style can be done through intentional or guided self-reflection on at least a couple elements of style (subject matter, composition, color, drawing style, paint handling, etc.).
Personally, I paint life. I love animals and people and nature and feel a spiritual connection to them. So, I honor them through my work. My style is very gestural. I love gestural lines in my work and set out to include them in each painting.

How did you get started and then develop your career?
Jessie Rasche: I have a history with life drawing (drawing the nude model), which, for me, is a celebration of beautiful gestural lines. I was part of a small life drawing group while I was in high school, before going to art school, and it got into my bones. 35 years later I still love life drawing. Life drawing regularly keeps me in touch with the gestural drawing marks, which I think improves my paintings.
Besides subject matter and mark-making, color is very important to me. My work has a rich, deep, harmonious color. I love learning how different color theories work together, and the physics of how colors work.

If you mix a violet-blue and a violet-red together, you get vibrant violet.
If you mix a green-blue and an orange-red together, you get muted violet.
If you mix orange and violet together, you get a beautiful, muted red. RED!

To see more of Jessie’s work, visit:
website

Jessie Rasche, Dinner and a Show, oil, 30 x 24 in; Exhibited in the OPA National, in private collection

Jessie Rasche, Duck in Water, oil, 24 x 30 in; 2024, available through artist