Cesar A. Jerez

Butler, NJ

2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2018, 2019

César A. Jerez is a longtime New Jersey resident, raised in Montclair and presently residing in Butler, NJ. He travels to sketch and paint landscapes and seascapes from Maine to Hawaii, in Spain and in the Dominican Republic where he was born. Mr. Jerez uses light effects in his plein-air paintings to create a sense of distance and drama while capturing both the weather conditions and the specific time of day.

After graduating from William Paterson University with a degree in Business Management, Mr. Jerez studied at the Art Students League in New York City. There he studied with, and was class monitor for, both Robert Beverly Hale and Gustav Rehberger. Studying with Mr. Hale, the human anatomy was the center of focus. Studying with Mr. Rehberger, the focus was on being able to capture the human form quickly while gracefully depicting its elegance and beauty through form and composition.

After several years of figurative study at the Art Student’s League, Mr. Jerez directed his attention to painting. At the Ridgewood Art Institute in Ridgewood, New Jersey, he studied and monitored Arthur Maynard’s oil painting classes. Mr. Maynard, a disciple of the famous League instructor, Frank Vincent Dumond, guided Mr. Jerez through the process of putting life into his art whether he is working with portrait, landscape, seascape or still life.

Today, as a self-termed “abstract realist”, Mr. Jerez captures the life of the subject by identifying the essential components of an object or scene and depicting them in the most simplistic manner to convey complete realism without neglecting the artistic elements of form and strong composition.