California artist Jesse Aldana uses the ritual of sunrise and sunset to capture the spirit of the west. Using a hybrid of realist brushwork and an almost surreal absence of humans, Jesse documents residential neighborhoods, main thoroughfares and coastal scenes across the great city of Los Angeles. Reminiscent of Ed Ruscha, Jesse’s work acts as both a record of the current landscape as well as a metaphor for the openness and sense of opportunity that continually draw settlers to the west coast. Jesse says of California, “the sky is an overwhelming presence.” He frames his big sky compositions with narrow palm trees and low-slung buildings at the periphery of the canvas to illustrate the scale of the scene. In doing so, the viewer can begin to appreciate the sentiment of the final frontier. Jesse works from a home studio in Los Angeles using photographs that he takes of the surrounding area as source material. He holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from The New York Academy of Art. He regularly exhibits at the Beverly Hills Art Show.