Album Paintings

Since graduating from the National Art School in Sydney in 1997, Jones’ images have often focused on the human figure and landscape. While Jones’ practice is predominantly of a figurative nature, he uses the landscape as a ground or space for his figures to inhabit. The plot of land Jones often refers to and draws inspiration from is a small stretch of overgrown farmland on the banks of the Hawkesbury River. This specific plot of land was granted to Jones’ ancestor, Robert Forrester, who was transported to Australia as a British convict on the First Fleet.

In 2005, Jones first painted two small black and white floating heads as a key motif in his work. Jones’ was looking for a metaphorical tool to reference his own presence. After much experimenting with various forms, Jones brazenly arrived at these ‘self-created avatars’ to reference his own identity. Over the years, the heads have grown in both their form and texture and evolved in the context of the paintings.

An old album of family photos became the starting point for this new body of work. Jones explains:

“I was given a photo album for my 30th birthday. My parents had put together a collection of old family photographs. Many of them are black and white and faded photos of me as a baby. One of my first thoughts was that it would be a good starting point for a new body of work. That idea was planted six years ago.”

Jones often uses photographs as the starting point for his paintings. However, there comes a point in the development of each work where the paintings begin to evolve in their own direction and the original source photograph is left behind.