About the Artist Richard Jesse Watson

Richard Jesse Watson studied art at Pasadena City College and Art Center College of Design. He has continued his artistic studies drawing from life, and at art museums and cathedrals. He worked as a graphic designer for World Vision International, an illustrator for Hallmark Cards, later becoming a freelance artist.

Watson painting under his favorite tree on da big island

Richard’s paintings are in galleries and on permanent display in corporate offices, conference centers, libraries, children’s hospitals, and private collections. His work has also appeared in Society of Illustrators National and Western Exhibitions and Communication Arts Illustration Annuals. Commissioned works include paintings for the Los Angeles Zoo, Bell Atlantic, Norwest Banks, Children’s Television Workshop and Mill Pond Press.

Mr. Watson’s re-creation of the Old English tale Tom Thumb won the Golden Kite Award for Illustration and was a Booklist Editor’s Choice. His illustrations for James Dickey’s Bronwen, the Traw and the Shapeshifter won the Parent Choice Award for Illustration.

Richard reading Pierre Lapin to his niece and grandson

He illustrated The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake, written by Nancy Willard, which was the Best Picture Book of the Year by People Magazine in 1990 and was an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice. Other awards include Waldenbooks Illustration Award (1990), Best Book Design from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (1986), and Best Children’s Book from the Printing Industries of America and he was named an Ezra Jack Keats Fellow by the Kerlan Collection of the University of Minnesota.

Richard illustrated Ruth Bell Graham’s, One Wintry Night, a five year illustration project, which took him to the Middle East and Singapore. The book has over 700,000 copies in print, as well as a dozen foreign language editions. One Wintry Night was chosen as the 1995 C.S. Lewis Gold Medal Winner for Children’s Picture Books.

The Waterfall’s Gift, by Joanne Ryder and illustrated by Watson, was published in Spring of 2001, by Sierra Club. Watson has completed the artwork for The Legend of Saint Christopher, adapted by Margaret Hodges, to be published by Eerdmans, Fall of 2002.

His present illustration and writing project is with Blue Sky Press, Scholastic.