A longtime contemporary of the historic Ferus Gallery artists of Los Angeles and a resident of California for the past four decades, Jessie Homer French (b. 1940) has painted distinctly intimate relationships between natural life cycles and human intervention. As a self-taught and self-described “regional narrative painter,” her pastoral scenes constantly ruminate mortality. Emphasizing the untamable quality of nature, Homer French commonly features the California landscape aflame in her paintings. Additionally, imagery of funerary processions and cemeteries reflect practices that heal and soothe the trauma of death. While her work may presuppose a morbid interpretation, Homer French’s flat and illustrative painting technique imbues a matter of fact and peaceful acceptance of the omnipresent threat of unnatural disasters in our everyday.
Jessie Homer French currently lives and works in Palm Desert, California. She has held recent solo exhibitions at Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin, IE and London, UK; Art Basel Hong Kong, CN; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA; the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA. Homer French’s work has also been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Palm Springs Museum, CA; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; and at Samuel Freeman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Palm Spring Art Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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