Jody Stenersen
Biographical Narrative
My formal journey into the art world began with Chuck Ceraso and his class “Drawing for People Who Think They Can’t” in 1997. At that time, I was unaware of how serendipitous and fortuitous my seemingly arbitrary selection of that first class was to be. My association with Chuck would cultivate my natural inclinations, enhance my technique, and profoundly influence the development of my work.
As I studied privately with him, I learned that he is a “direct descendent” of the French and American Impressionists through his teacher, Henry Hensche. Hensche was the student and protégé of Charles Hawthorne. Hawthorne painted extensively with William Merritt Chase and the famous French impressionist Claude Monet.
Based on his many years of painting and studying with the American and French impressionists – particularly Monet – Hawthorne conceived and developed a system for teaching an impressionistic process for refining the ability to see color. In 1900, at Cape Cod, he started the first art school devoted specifically to the color discoveries of the Impressionist Masters. Here he taught his students how to perceive true colors within the overall atmosphere and influence of the surrounding light. When Hawthorne died in 1930, he left the school and his theory of teaching to Hensche who continued and further developed the process until his death in 1992.
The purpose of the school was to enable others to master the relationships between light and color. First, to discern true color by understanding and seeing the immediate influence of the surrounding light, and then to render that light most accurately through the appropriate layering and blending of its composite colors.
For five years, I studied and practiced this process in weekly light and color studio classes. By learning this disciplined process for seeing light and color directly from the impressionist masters’ view, I am now able to apply their understanding of color to capture the effects of light in atypical ways. This appreciation for the interrelationship and interdependence of light and color has become the essence of my approach to painting and perfected my unique style of achieving light and color with pastel.
I feel most fortunate to be only three generations removed from Monet – in direct succession of his colleagues and students. While I do not paint in the style of Monet or Hawthorne or Hensche or Ceraso, my work is ultimately created and distilled through their process for refining one’s ability to see the interdependence of color and light.
My subjects are almost exclusively floral, ranging in size from 2x3 inches to 36x36 inches. Given the limited number of pieces that I produce, I exhibit my work only occasionally in public venues. In order to preserve the pure joy of painting and not allow it to become a job, I have chosen to decline commissions and offers for representation.
Much like my father – a professional photographer and award-winning watercolor artist – I prefer to reference my own photographs of nature as my primary subject matter.
I am now expressing my love of macro photography in pastel painting. I typically select and paint subjects that are inspiring to me at any given time.