Jerry Ross's Page

One-man show: examples of my work in portraiture, cityscape, landscape, and figure.

theme: "American Verismo, the style" --

How a Tuscan 19th century painting school (I Macchiaiaoli) inspired an Oregon artist. The concepts of "macchia", "macchie", "effect", combined with "Scapigliatura" the "wild hair" movement in post-Risorgimento Italy, provide the context for an operatic new movement in painting called "American verismo" which states that the over emphasis of DaDa influences in contemporary painting may have skewed art appreciation in ways profitable to the art market and corporations, but not necessarily good for mankind.

Appreciation of the basic aesthetic elements in composition and "grand theory" in painting is more fundamental and important in the long run, but difficult to defend in the short haul. But inspired by Italians, my style incorporates both the naturalism and "spot painting" techniques of the I Macchiaioli who combined social verism with their ideas about painting.

medium: oil on canvas, oil on paper

number of pieces to be submitted: 45