T. A. Jones - Artist

Nothing more Texas than bluebonnets and mesquite

2010-05-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

I don't normally paint bluebonnets, bu they were so spectacular this year I had to do it. This is a soft pastel, 20" x 24" on heavy acid free paper.

the road goes on forever

2010-04-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is a small oil painting that has had an impact on a lot of people who view it. I consider it almost abstract, but have been told it is full of symbolism. It is 11 x 14. I have decided to offer this for sale. Thanks for looking!

jetty rock off by itself

2010-04-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is a rock at the base of the south jetty in Port Aransas, Texas. I have used this rock for several paintings and pastels. Why is it away from the other rocks? All I know is, at high tide it is a good place to find a redfish or two!

Spring is right around the corner

2010-04-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting more. Here is my first pastel of the year. It is 11 x 14 inches and is for sale.

2009-08-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hello there. I thought after all this time my readers deserved to see what I look like. I have been painting since I can remember. I have a degree in Studio Art from Angelo State University but quickly realized I would starve to death trying to survive as an artist. So I used my science and biology hours to have a wonderful thirty year career with the Texas Commission on Enviromental Quality. My job took me to the most beautiful parts of Texas and the parts I feel most connnected to as a sixth generation Texan. I have always painted landscapes because it is in the land and the earth that I find meaning.
I recently had a series of severe seizures. I lost a week. One moment I was fixing my elderly mother lunch at her country home near Utopia and the next thing I remember is a week later waking up in a hospital bed. I'm feeling better every day, thanks for asking.
But here is the strange and wonderful part. As an artist, I have always had conflicts reconciling my urge to capture the beauty of the land in a representational manner and my urges as a contemporary and modern artist to embrace abstraction, the thought of a canvas or piece of paper being nothing more than for an artist to express themselves on. My heros were Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Milton Avery, Picasso, Monet.........you get the picture, I love them all.
Here is the wonderful part and it makes all the agony and inconvenience of the seizures worthwhile. I now paint differently. All the conflicts I once had are gone, it is all there for the taking when I pick up a brush or a pastel now. I feel complete. And I feel like my major life's work is ahead of me. I feel like a young hopeful artist I once was. I am looking forwards to sharing some of this new work with you. it is not drasticlly different from my older work. I have just been able to put more of who I am into it. Thanks for reading this.

North of Sabinal

2009-05-10T21:01:00.001-07:00

Still Life With Cactus Blossom

2009-04-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I put anything new here. I plan to get some help with my website and want to start over with one of three or four different sites such as Artspan. I am posting a pastel titled originally "Still Life With Cactus Blossom" but I want to change the title to "Cactus Blues" instead. I won first place in the Still Life division of the Texas Pastel Society's first annual juried competition/show. The juror was Lorenzo Chavez, one of my very favorite artist. So I was quite honored.

Bright Morning and Low Tide

2009-01-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

This pastel is 27 x 38, the largest I have done. If you have ever been to Port Aransas, Texas they have the famous south jetty. This was painted at the foot of the jetty. I always have wondered what that jetty rock is doing way off by itself. It had rained the night before but cleared bright and sunny. The rock off by itself was so dark I just had to paint it that way! The price on this pastel is $875.00. It has a wonderful frame around it. I will ship it free and insured.

2009-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

I just found out today that Andrew Wyeth has died. Mr. Wyeth certainly changed the way I look at art. Up until I first saw Christina's World I thought the only function of a painting was to be as pretty as you could make it. Mr. Wyeth was fierce and frightening in his honesty and it stunned me like I had been struck with a baseball bat. Mr. Wyeth, thank you for opening my eyes.

San Antonio Country Club Sale

2008-11-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

I finally had my sale at the San Antonio Country Club. I had sixty small pastels for sale and sold thirty two. I was very pleased with all of the positive feedback and of course all of the sales. I would like to welcome all of my new collectors!
My next sale is later this month at the historic Courand house on the banks of the Medina River in Castroville, Texas. I will be displaying many of my large oils and small pastels there.

The Pastel Journal

2008-10-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

Got a letter from the Pastel Journal magazine informing me that one of my pastels, Red Behind Trees, won an Honorable Mention in the 10th Annual Pastel 100 Competition and will appear in the April 2009 issue of the magazine. Very exciting for me!

Going crazy over sunsets

2008-10-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

I almost feel guilty painting sunsets because you can use the most outrageous colors without feeling silly.

eternal sunshine

2008-10-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I will get so caught up in a color, in this case the color yellow, that the color becomes the subject and the actual subject, trees on a horizon or whatever it happens to be a landscape of, isn't the subject anymore. This pastel is really just about yellow. I have never been sure whether this pastel works or not, but I have gotten some positive feedback on it, so here it is.

Shades of Gray

2008-09-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

I rarely put figures in my paintings or pastels. This one has two, but they are almost out of the frame of the pastel. I wanted the two figures to be together but at the same time lost in their own thoughts. Together but still alone.

Finally finishing up with pastels for awhile

2008-09-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

I have really been working hard lately, not so much doing new work, but taking a lot of framed pastels apart and re-matting them with only mat, glass, masonite backing, and four clips to hold them together. They have twine wound around the four clips on back to make them more secure and provide a place to hang. I haven't counted them all, but there are close to seventy now.
That's enough! Whew! I have two sales and a show coming up in November and did not want to be scrambling around.
I have only posted a few of them on this site, so if anyone wants to see more, let me know, or better yet, come to my sale at the San Antonio Country Club. I have to provide names of any guests, so email me if you would like to go. The show is on a Thursday, November 6, from 9 am to 4 pm.
Today I am posting a few pics of pastels I am doing to unwind. And yes, I was looking through Monets Years in Giverney when I started the waterlilies. I can understand why he did so many, it is very relaxing painting them. They will likely be the last ones for a few months because I am switching to oils after these. I have all these nice empty frames now and am going to have masonite cut to fit and paint cactus for a month or two. Why would anybody paint an old cactus? I can't explain it either!

New Old Work

2008-09-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

Some of these pastels have been lingering in my workbook for quite a while. Some are new work. Just thought I would do snapshots of them before sticking them under glass, which makes it almost impossible for me to see anything but the reflections in the glass.

Julian Onderdonk at the McNay

2008-09-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! I went to see the Julian Onderdonk exhibit at the McNay last Friday. I knew he was a talented artist who had studied with important artists in this country and in France. It is a shame that he is going to be forever known as just a bluebonnet painter.
His last work, Dawn in the Hills, is as magnificent as any impressionist of his day ever accomplished. Go see this exhibit, it is worth it!

Four more pastels

2008-09-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am taking apart some older pastels from last year. It is impossible to photograph pastels through glass so I am taking pics of them before recovering them with glass. I was really interested in the relationship of orange with other colors at the time.

This is me for better or worse...:-)

2008-09-15T11:16:00.001-07:00

A good friend and collector of mine sent me the most wonderful birthday present last week. A complete series of Schminke purple hue pastels, from the darkest almost magenta/black to the loveliest light filled shades of lavender.
If you are a pastelist, you know there is no such thing as having too many colors. I suppose there is some spartan value in limiting your choices and really working with those colors to learn their characteristics, but for me half the fun of pastels is being able to reach for the most outragous or subtle colors and being able to try them out against each other.
Anyway, here is a 7 x 10 in my favorite size workbook and paper. It is 400 series black Strathmore in the 76 lb. size. I love using this paper. It doesn't eat up your pastels too quickly and actually accepts textural strokes.
I am not doing very much new work at the present. I am getting ready for two sales and one show in November. Many of the pastels are already framed but I am removing the frames and re matting them with acid free mat board with two inch mats, glass, backing and clips to hold them together.
Several of my collectors have told me the first thing they do when they buy one of my pastels is to throw away the old mat and frame and have them framed and matted again. Apparently I have no taste when it comes to choosing my own mats and frames.
In fact, one of my old artist friends, an old cowboy who really was a cowboy (and is now a nationally recognized artist), Bill Mittag, once wrote me when I told him I was going to work in a frame shop... he said " Terry, it is alright if you want to work in a frame shop, but please, whatever you do, do not frame your own work!"
Well, I guess Bill was right. It is a relief not to worry about it. Oh, and google Bill Mittag and take a look at his wonderful paintings of what life as an Indian was like before we came along and screwed things up for them.

My first blog

2008-09-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

I am brand new at this. Instead of telling you about myself and my work, I am going to use an interview that Mike Brannon, also an artist, did for me in 2006. I think he captured the essence of what I try to do with my art.... so here it is:

Interview: VOA Magazine (Voices of Art)

A Study in Contrasts

"Art is the lie that tells the truth" - Picasso

It's said that art as a life is less a choice we make and more that it either chooses us - or it doesn't. If so, this would be the case with Terry Jones, as having started painting at 7, he's never looked back and continues the exploration of the various sides of his artistic personality through oils. As with any journey, it's a study in self discovery, a catalystic journey both vivid and soulful via the sheer power and presence of color, form, balance, memory and the exploration of their personal meaning for artist and viewer.

The intense, soft-spoken, sixth-generation Texan traces his lineage to Benjamin Franklin Highsmith, who was the
last courier out of the Alamo. Known as 'Uncle Ben', his photo graces the walls of the Alamo today. Born into a
family of ranchers, Jones still chooses to live away from the city now, near Medina Lake, where he finds it best to work. "We're pioneers", he explains, "I was the first one to be born in a hospital." He often visits the Hill Country for inspiration, specifically the Lost Maples area where his grandfather once owned land, then going for eight dollars an acre. Though not an artist himself, Jones credits his dad, who spent two years in a POW camp after being shot down over Germany in WWll, with being a strong influence in his life.

Originally an environmental investigator, Jones has always been drawn to the natural world, especially South
Texas, and tends to see everything he does, whether abstract or not, as a landscape. An inner ear reaction to
a mycin drug at eight caused Jones to lose much of his hearing just as he began to paint; something he believes
has caused him to become internally oriented to an even greater degree. "It's caused me to live more in my head",
he explains. "I've got an internal ego." he relates, which along with his quiet nature one could almost mistake for
a lack of intensity; not the case with Jones.

"Painting representational art usually bores me." he injects, though he'd originally worked representationally in oil until seeing the now famous '49 Pollock spread in Life magazine while a young teenager. "I've never been the same since", he laughs. "I always have to satisfy the snobby, New York art inner critic", he continues, describing the competing internal voices for his work to also have universal appeal.

Jones' background includes a degree in studio painting from Angelo State University where he studied with realist/ surrealist Otis Lumpkin. "He was the art department", Jones' confides. Under Lumpkin, Terry studied classical painting and the techniques of the old masters. Always intensely interested in color, he recalls learning about glazing color on top of black and white sketches to create an otherwise unattainable glow.

Numbered among his influences are: Miro, Picasso, Hans Hoffman, Monet, Munch, Emil Nolde, Albert Pinkham Ryder, W. M. Turner, Wolf Khan and Frida Kahlo. "She was brave", he says of Kahlo, who wasn't a favorite artist
but was an inspiration for how she faced what she'd endured in her life, while Khan's iconic take, "the eye reigns", has been a strong philosophic influence, as well.

"It's the process that kept me doing it", Jones offers. Artist/art instructor Hans Hoffman, who taught Rothko,
DeKooning, Joan Mitchell and Wolf Khan, was also a definitive influence. Among the things he's gleaned from
Hoffman were to only begin painting once your mind was clear and each time to "always try to re-invent the wheel".

"I never intentionally use the same palette twice.", instead choosing to operate instinctualy while eschewing repetition, as
much as possible. "Repetition bores me." he emphasizes, but I do love painting a series of the same subject, another conundrum.

"The pastels began as studies for the larger oils, but have since taken on a life of their own", he explains,
regarding their two-fold relevance and the response of collectors. Drawing on various scenes and events he's
witnessed, Jones finds the essence of each to express the emotional gravity of what he senses. With just a
piece of pigmented chalk or oil as the catalyst between inspiration and canvas, a new window of commentary
is created, unlike any other - the lie that tells the truth.

The surrealist landscape, "Purple Receding", is a perfect example of the mists of his favorite color conspiring to create the illusion of a brilliant, impossibly hued forest - purple and cyan - just beyond a rust colored 'field' (or is it a lake?). As with Van Gogh, color and texture take center stage, with the abstraction hinting at representation causes it to become a fascination for the viewer. There's a certain psychologically powerful cloudscape effect in play, like a Rorschach ink blot or clouds overhead, that allows one to create the illusion of a brilliant, impossibly hued forest - purple and cyan - just beyond a rust colored 'field' (or is it a lake?). As with Van Gogh, color and texture take center stage, with the abstraction hinting at representation causes it to becomes a fascination for the viewer. There's a certain psychologically powerful cloudscape effect in play, like a Rorschach ink blot or clouds overhead, that allows one to imagine whatever comes to mind in that moment.

"Being in the moment; nothing is as fine." Jones adds, though predominantly through the distance of time
from older works can he best appreciate them. Whether a series of vertically oriented horizon lines - bands of color above and below meant to imply ground and sky - or a whimsical pair of trees, one dark with the other in flame, seeming to represent the two sides of a coin; the yin-yang nature of ourselves, with a humorous twist. Jones expertly plays walks the tightrope
of contrast, balance, whimsy, drama and the juxtaposition of unexpected color. Exploring where each blends, where the road to each abstraction gets lost in the other realism, Jones finds that fine balance and knows when to let go.

Though having a penchant for purple, even devoting an entire series to it, Jones also describes an affinity for red, as well. "It's among the most difficult of colors to make work". Curious by nature, he insists colors that were never meant to work together find themselves side by side in his work on a regular basis. Though he's been through all the color theory he could stand - triadic, complimentary, Munsell - he now just goes on pure instinct when starting new work, insisting "I never use the same palette twice. Have "no boundaries" and "know the rules so you can break them. Just know them first." he advises.

Selected shows have included: Blue Star Galleries 'Arts and Eats' and 'First Friday' at The Joan Grona Gallery. Kate Kingman, a designer who promotes and sells his work around the country, "...sees me as a 19th century impressionist", he laughs, though stylistically, he sees himself as a contemporary painter. It's that conflict again, between internal and external vision. At once laid-back and intense, serious and entertaining, surrealist/ abstract impressionist, Jones presents a study in contrasts. There's also always the conflict between being driven and obsessed - finding ways to stay focused, involved and relevant in the current arts climate - and the grief and struggle that accompany being an artist of any kind.

"Those concerned with art seem to be diminishing." he laments, though currently experiencing his best personal year to date. A study in contrasts for sure.

Jones is currently showing at Private Stock in San Antonio and the Austin Street Gallery in San Antonio. One of his pastels, "Singing", is in the permanent art collection at the University of Texas in San Antonio.

Mike Brannon/VOA - 12/06