Henry Jones • Artist

A Happy New Year to everyone. Back in the studio for the first paintings of 2020.

A couple of weeks before Christmas I was invited to show some work at an event hosted by The Anchor Pub at Walberswick. The space required about 25 paintings, scenes of the local area and some assorted others such as London and Venice. It was quite an effort to get that many framed paintings together in quite a short time but creativity won and the show went up. After a slow start, owing to foul weather, visitors appeared, and sales followed, including a couple of commissions. A successful venture and one which has created new contacts and opportunities. Splendid.

More paintings of Suffolk for the show later this month.

Earlier this week I was awarded the Constance Coper Cup by fellow members of the Croydon Art Society. Very pleased to have received this award for the best traditional non-oil painting at the 130th Croydon Art Society exhibition at the Croydon Clocktower.

I will be exhibiting at The Anchor in Walberswick, Suffolk from 19 to 22 December. The art exhibition is taking place at a pop up Christmas event in the flint barn adjacent to the pub from 10am to 4pm. 
theanchoratwalberswick.com
The Anchor, The Street, Walberswick Suffolk IP18 6UA

​Below is a sample of the framed work I'll be showing, including scenes of Suffolk and London.

Below are paintings from two commissions, all quite different subjects. I’ve always struggled with flowers, so view my two efforts shown as something of a success. The Northumberland sky over Bamburgh Castle allowed me to loosen up a bit an create an abstract background for the sharp silhouette of the castle. The dogfight was a treat to paint, revisiting the many drawings I did as a kid, and the one I consider worked very well is then troops and tanks. This was painted quickly with little fuss, almost monochromatic my final action was to paint a thin wash of orange and yellow.

After commissioning three paintings of a WW2 theme, including one of his grandfather’s advance into Sicily, a buyer asked for two large paintings of Venice. He sent reference images of an overall theme plus photos of the wall space they were to occupy. I worked out a suitable size and proceeded with the composition. This began with two small paintings then, from a roll of Arches paper (the 1m x 0.5m size was larger than full standard sheet), I created the two final pieces. Working on a larger scale in watercolour poses unique challenges, mainly keeping the paper wet and the paint live. Arches paper, made in Southern France, is presumably designed for a warmer climate than we have in England, and retains moisture longer than the Saunders Waterford I normally use.

Another batch of paintings went off to Mexico City in October. These are all square format, a request of the gallery.

A few sketches from my current sketchbook.