Jones gives one-man art show
Published 10:37 pm Thursday, July 31, 2014
W. Martin Jones strove for perfection in the beginning of his art career but later realized that wasn’t possible, he said.
“I painted like God painted, or I tried to,” he said of his work, which features a lot of landscapes and birds.
Artist W. Martin Jones stands with his painting “Guineas,” which won him the 2013 Suffolk Art League Juried Exhibition. The honor comes with the opportunity for a one-man show the following year. His exhibit, “Inspirations,” opens Saturday.
His earlier work appears almost like a photograph, because he was trying to represent the scene exactly as it was.
“But I could never get to that point,” he said in his artist’s statement. “I had to loosen up.”
Therefore, his later works feature many of the same types of subjects but are done in more of an impressionist style.
A wide variety of his work will be featured in a one-man show, “Inspirations,” opening Saturday at the Suffolk Art Gallery. The Suffolk Art League’s annual one-man show is part of the reward for being the first-place winner of the previous year’s juried exhibition.
A resident of the Benn’s Church area of Isle of Wight County, Taylor said he has been interested in art since he was a child. But he never really took it seriously until the 1980s, when he started taking lessons with Suffolk’s John Taylor.
Taylor introduced Jones to acrylics — he was using oils before — and acrylic work makes up the entire 21-piece show.
Jones also takes lessons from Smithfield’s Ann Hubbard, who he said is challenging him to try new things.
“Ann has tried to get me a little bit into watercolor, but I’m not a bit interested,” he said. She’s also encouraging a brighter color palette and different styles, he said.
“We have not exactly clashed, but we have worked through several things,” he said.
His piece that won the 2013 juried exhibition, “Guineas,” was the first work he had ever entered in an exhibition, he said.
Tanja Softic’, the juror for that exhibition, said the winning work “stood out to me for their skill, but more important, for the sense of vitality and freshness of execution. They bear hallmark signs of great artworks.”
An opening reception, where visitors can meet Jones, is set for Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the gallery, 118 Bosley Ave. The exhibit continues through Sept. 5.
The gallery, which is free and open to the public, is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
For more information, call the art league at 925-0448 or the gallery at 514-7284.
