“Many Suns Through the Forest”

Watson’s oil painting inspired by an evening walk.

When my works of art pack their suitcases and go live happily with my art collectors

Richard with his “Mad Hatter” painting, surrounded by a border of runes, riddles and rhymes, all painted in mirror image (backwards), as befits Alice’s sojourn in Wonderland.

“The Return of Ulysses” acrylic on canvas, 7’ x 3’

Believe it or not, this is a portrait of the collector, who asked to be portrayed as Mr. Toad, from Wind in the Willows. Inspired by Ernest Shepard’s incomparable ink drawings.

Two of Watson’s large oil paintings from The Magic Rabbit each flank the foyer of this elegant art-filled home.

With “Plenipotentiary”, his Raven, guarding the roost.

RJ visiting his oil painting, “Confluence”, in the permanent collection at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.

Watson’s “When the Morning Stars Sang Together”, acrylic on panel~was recently crated and shipped to dear friends in North Carolina, ready to be hung above the fireplace..

Angels, Comets, Abstracts 

Richard Jesse Watson is a fine artist and illustrator.

His art shape~shifts between realism and abstraction, often combining the two.

“My longings manifest as I weave the weft of reality into the warp of abstract.

Imagining myself into an elsewhere jump starts my creative mojo; exploring that curiouser and curiouser unknown ~

those oh-so-many worlds waiting..”

Richard Jesse Watson

  • "Watson's exquisite paintings radiate texture, feeling and mood."

    Chicago Sun Times

  • Kirkus Review proclaims Watson's art, "exuberant".

    Kirkus

  • "Richard Jesse Watson's Tom Thumb [paintings] will take your breath away."

    Connoisseur

  • "Watson's artwork achieves a startling blend of the ancient and the timeless."

    Publishers Weekly

  • "Richard Watson's use of egg tempera echoes the realism of Dürer."

    Los Angeles Times

  • "Watson's paintings from Tom Thumb are intricately detailed..."

    The New York Times

  • "His work is a process of thinking: …to balance and nod to the extremes on either end of an idea.”

    Kristin Tollefson, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

  • "Watson's egg-tempera paintings are at once powerful and dark, lyrical and decorative, compelling and full of light-all the while being meticulously and exquisitely crafted."

    Barry Moser