Cassinetto - Eucalyptus Grove Monterey Area - 1995

Jack Thomas Cassinetto (March 26, 1944 - January 4, 2018,

Sonora, California Sonora is the county seat of Tuolumne County, California. Founded during the California Gold Rush by Mexican miners from Sonora (after which the city is named), the city population was 5,226 during the 2020 Census, an increase of 221 from the ...

) was a prolific

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

artist of the

tonalism Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often domina ...

movement who painted primarily

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

landscapes such as

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake i ...

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

, the

Gold Country The Gold Country (also known as Mother Lode Country) is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines ...

, the Northern California Coast, and the

American River , name_etymology = , image = American River CA.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = The American River at Folsom , map = Americanrivermap.png , map_size = 300 , map_caption ...

and

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento� ...

Personal life

Cassinetto was born on March 26, 1944 in

to Ben and Mary Sardella Cassinetto, both scions of pioneering families from

Genoa, Italy Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

. In 1966, he earned his BA in Art and English from

California State University, Sacramento California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...

. He earned a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...

from the

University of Northern Colorado The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) is a public university in Greeley, Colorado. The university was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School of Colorado and has a long history in teacher education. The institution has officially changed ...

in 1972. As a young artist, he dabbled in

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

, jewelry making and

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

. He had painted all his adult life. His work was exclusively

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

until 2008, and generally on boards. All work after 2008 is acrylic. His subjects were mostly

landscapes from regions such as

, the Northern California Coast, the

American River , name_etymology = , image = American River CA.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = The American River at Folsom , map = Americanrivermap.png , map_size = 300 , map_caption ...

, the

, and other locations in this area. Aside from being an artist, he had multiple occupations throughout his life, including that of being a commodities broker, a partner in the family business, a teacher, a Sonora City Councilman and Mayor of Sonora (1986-1994). As Mayor, he had always been pro-development and pro-growth:

''Maybe it's time for a change, to get someone from the other side. But I hope the people who plan on running will concentrate on more than one development here and one there and look at the big picture. Government is potholes, street lights and job descriptions. I hope they have an interest in the entire constituency.''

He was first married to Betty Jean Carter. Their only child, Paul, was born in 1968. Jack spent the last 35 years of his life with his second wife, Connie Sue Clark, an award-winning photographer. He died in his sleep on January 4, 2018.

Career

''Too many artists get seduced by sunlight and have to continually adjust for light variations. The lighting conditions in y studioare perfect. It never changes from day to night. I always know the color on the canvas is what I want it to be. —Jack Cassinetto''

Jack Cassinetto was a ''

'' painter of the

movement, "one of the finest artists of his time and genre." He often used reclaimed ''

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

'' framing or antique furniture in his work. His influences included

Granville Redmond Granville Richard Seymour Redmond (March 9, 1871 – May 24, 1935) was an American landscape painter and exponent of Tonalism and California Impressionism. He was also an occasional actor for his friend Charlie Chaplin. Early years Red ...

, Xavier Martinez, Gottardo Piazzoni and

Arthur Frank Mathews Arthur F. Mathews (October 1, 1860 – February 19, 1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a s ...

. His work has been displayed at galleries such a
Christopher Queen GalleriesNew Masters GalleryVentana Gallery
Chapman Gallery, Wendt Gallery, Lisa Coscino Gallery, California Art Gallery, Meyer Gallery, Endenhurst and Morseburg Galleries, Sagebrush Gallery, Claypoole - Freese Gallery, James Harold Galleries, Clars Auction Galleries, The Craftsman Galleries, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, The Marine Gallery, The Main Gallery, Gregory Kondos Art Gallery, and First Street Galleries. Cassinetto's work has been featured in publications including ''

American Art Review ''American Art Review'' is an art magazine founded and edited by Thomas R. Kellaway who published the magazine from September 1973 until November 1978. In the summer of 1992 he revived the magazine, which is published to this day. It is published ...

'' (2004),. ''Plein Air Magazine'' (June 2004), ''Southwest Art'' (October 2002), ''American Bungalow'', and ''The Artists' Bluebook'' (2005). His work has been displayed at the Pacific Grove Art Institute (1995), San Joaquin Delta College (2008), Pasadena Historical Museum (2000) and the Alburquerque Museum (2003, 2004, 2005).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassinetto, Jack 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Painters from California University of Northern Colorado alumni Tonalism Living people 1944 births People from Sonora, California 20th-century American male artists