You can’t walk out of the Jessel Gallery in Napa without feeling good, especially if Jessel is in that day. The historic stone building is garnished with outdoor art and flowers, immediately welcoming you with a patchwork of bright colors everywhere. Cozy couches beckon you to plant yourself for a while and enjoy the inner view.

Gallery owner Jessel Miller, whose work is featured along with a rotating showcase of more than 350 other artists, is an ebullient soul who takes great delight in chatting with visitors and sharing her passion for art, music, life, and whatever might be on her mind that day. But it’s not just the friendly environment that vibes well. Miller is an internationally known artist with an extraordinary range of skills, having begun as a notable portrait artist but excelling as well with still life and, later, her signature watercolor landscapes and fantasy scenes that are swept with a rich rainbow of colors and soaring energy. There is an inner glow, a spiritual flavor to Miller’s works.
“Art,” she says, “is a personal interpretation of love and life.”

Miller’s work strongly reflects her values of hope, happiness, inner peace, contentment and time to enjoy them all. Her works have an evocative power similar to that which we experience when listening to a particular kind of music. The overall effect is to enjoy what you see as much as how it makes you feel while looking at it.

Earlier this year, Miller was commissioned by the San Francisco Visitors Bureau to develop a creative vision of the San Francisco landscape that would incorporate the most memorable images and qualities of our beloved City by the Bay. Following the well-known Tony Bennett-inspired theme, she created a vertically oriented montage of things San Franciscan, including the Golden Gate, the Transamerica pyramid, Chinatown, Coit Tower, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts and a cable car atop one of the City’s many hilltops.
The piece also includes abstract elements expertly blended in with Miller’s deft brushstrokes, creating a kind of hide-and-seek game with the viewer. Over here, the ghost of a mother with child appears in the branches of a tree; over there the words “love” on the roof of a Spanish mission and “one another” overlaying blades of grass in the park. On closer inspection hearts begin to appear in both shape and alteration of color, some dancing among the leaves, others burnished on the sides of buildings.

Miller has clearly evolved as a story-teller, not only in incorporating deliberate messages of love, peace and diversity in her watercolors, but also using her art as well as poetry in the development of a trilogy of children’s books called “Mustard.” She recently published her fifth children’s book titled “Angels in the Vineyard,” a lovely tale of two children who rediscover their creative powers in a world dominated by televisions and computers.

Miller, who was raised in a small town in Canada, remembers how comfortable and easily accepted she felt when she moved to San Francisco. She wanted to express that experience in her new work. “When you come to San Francisco you feel welcomed,” she says. “People are very open and accepting here. It really represents the best of America.” She calls the new piece “Humble Hearts Love One Another.”

The original art is on display at the Jessel Gallery, along with limited edition lithographs, giclees and colorful notecards featuring snapshot portions of the larger piece. While you’re there, you will enjoy not only Miller’s other artwork, but an enticing, eclectic collection of other artists’ creations as well. “The purpose of this gallery is to give visitors something to fall in love with,” laughs Miller.

The Jessel Gallery is located at 1019 Atlas Peak Road off Hwy 121
in Napa (near the Silverado Resort).

Gallery hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (707) 257-2350 or visit her website, www.jesselgallery.com.