The new work of celebrated Cornish artist Robert Jones is to be highlighted in a new solo exhibition at Beside the Wave gallery in Falmouth
The aptly named ‘An Eye on the Weather’ exhibition runs from May 16 to 29 and gallery manager Sarah Wimperis said she was thrilled to be able to focus on Jones’s work.
“I am a huge fan of Robert’s and love to discuss his pieces with visitors at the gallery,” she explained.
“His popularity as an artist is well established, but interest in his work has soared in recent years and this exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for art lovers to immerse themselves in his new work.”
Jenny Pery, who authored a book on Jones, said he brings “the two elements of observation and memory together in his work”.
“He is able to simplify without generalising and to create a tension between abstract shapes in the pictures and their figurative meaning,” she continued.
“The less that is in the picture, the more it suggests action or distance outside the frame. In his work small statements often stand for large concepts.”
Speaking about the upcoming exhibition, Jones said he has felt compelled to create since childhood.
“I paint about places and things that interest me; that catch my eye,” he asserted.
“I make paintings of places that have meaning to me and there are subjects I return to often; but for me painting is about more than just subject matter. It somehow shares some of the values that architecture is concerned with - the shapes of things and the shape of spaces around them, and how they relate to each other within the picture.”
For many years Jones worked in black and white and it wasn’t until his mid-forties that colour came into his work.
“I find as I grow older that I am more interested in colour and combinations of colour,” Jones continued.
“I am interested in the process of creating the illusion of depth in the painting, but at the same time to remind the viewer of the surface of the paintings and the marks and texture of the paint.”
Jones added that many of his current pieces evolve over a long period, through a process of continual repainting until “something feels right and emerges”.
“That rightness is something that only can be said in paint,” he added.
Jones has been painting seascapes, Atlantic beaches and seas and clouds, soaring gulls, landscapes, summer oaks, winter trees, Troytown St. Agnes Isles of Scilly, cows, chickens and goats painted on islands in Greece and still lifes, all of which will feature in the exhibition.
Jones is also the author of the acclaimed book on the life of St Ives artist Alfred Wallis. “Alfred wallis, Artist and Mariner” and the biography “Reuben Chappell, Pierhead Painter”
For further information visit www.beside-the-wave.co.uk/exhibitions
