Susan Braden in the Connecticut Shoreline Pictorial Gazette, 11/16/2002

"A Little Bit Of Paradise -- It's the season when we all could use a little paradise. ... Jere Rowland has brought a bit of Aruba back with him for us to enjoy on a cold November afternoon. Brilliant scenes of cobalt blue skies and jade waters; startling tropical birds and rare butterflies fill his bright and airy gallery... Tourists are seen getting their photo snapped beneath a large rocky outcropping; couples swim in a secret pool that is incredibly turquoise, and a woman parasails over Caribbean blue waters into crystal clear skies."

The large painting of the secret pool is rough and wild. Sea spray is frozen in mid-air as the rocks block the ocean and the ocean roars over the top. The parasailing painting appears almost cinematic in that it is done in five panels. Jere says, "The Trade Winds blow a constant 30 to 40 miles per hour, so all the guides have to do is let you go. One second you're on the boat, in the next you're high in the air! I wanted to get that feeling of being grabbed up into the sky."

The artist wants to paint beauty: "There's enough ugliness in the real world, I don't want to add to it."

Rowland describes himself as a "painter of life", and calls his style Concept Realism. The paintings are inspired by a variety of sources -- photos, sketches, memories and -- perhaps most important -- fantasy; then rendered in a realistic and recognizable style."