[citation needed] Although Jessup occasionally created in other styles this period is predominantly stylized and representational.

The entire surface of each painting tended to be heavily textured like a choppy sea when viewed up close.

[citation needed] Already an established artist Jessup, then in his mid-fifties, and his wife Faith travelled to Europe for a month in 2008.

They travelled to Madrid, Brussels and Florence but it was the baroque paintings in the Prado in Spain that influenced him the most.

He returned “with a desire to be more aggressive, more ambitious, more visionary, and take more chances.” Paintings during this time were strange and sometimes unsettling.