As a young painter I can remember one very special moment, the clear realisation that ‘this’ is what it’s all about. I had just left teaching in the Midlands and moved to Dorset. The ancient and beautiful landscape I found was certainly a revelation and one specific image stays in my memory.
One day I visited the Hell Stones above Portesham. Imagine a vast vaulted sky, a chalk textured field stretching ahead to reveal an ancient stone structure, a Neolithic dolmen originally erected about 4000BC. I was well and truly hooked and from then on Dorset’s ancient sites and marks on the landscape have been the source material for most of my work. Purbeck and Cranborne Chase (where I lived for many years) are the primary inspiration but more generally it is the quality of light (the chalk ‘earth’ reflecting the light), the long horizons and huge skies which influence my work.
Stones, rocks and the discovery of Purbeck’s amazing ‘edge’, its coastline, the intricate detail and sweeping scale as well as its textures and shapes were all absorbed into my ’vocabulary’. In response I created new techniques to try and express what I had seen.
I had taught ceramics and that awareness of surfaces coupled with the need to recreate textures led me to experiment. The experience of firing pots in kilns led me to explore the action of fire on acrylic and oil paint. I learned of the stresses and textures resulting from this action and by layering, smoothing back and combining with mixed media (glue for example) managed to achieve the surfaces evident in the paintings in this exhibition, complex textures which contrast with areas of porcelain-like smoothness. I encourage tactile as well as visual involvement with my work and to that end leave the paintings unglazed.
'These paintings are born out of time and heat, his extraordinary making process replaying the creation through destruction of the ancient landscape which is his subject'.
( Fifty Wessex Artists, Evolver Books 2006 ).
I paint full-time and exhibit regularly, my work being in numerous private and corporate collections. I have also been selected for inclusion in ‘Fifty Wessex Artists’ and ‘Cranborne Chase Artists’ and I am now working on my second book ‘Overview’.
PAUL JONES 2007
Bettles Gallery.