Penelope Jones
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings and collages work with architectural structure, surface texture, and color interaction, in a desire to make each piece a metaphorical location to explore and inhabit. My process is both a building up and an excavation of sorts. With collage it is a process of constructing a kind of unity from pre-existing fragments of my previous work, while in painting the cohesion into a single object comes from layers of color, shape, and line. In both mediums I work between structure and color, while celebrating contrasts such as straightness vs. curvilinearity, control vs. spontaneousness, and tension vs. harmony.
For many years I taught college-level foundational courses in design, drawing, and painting – and this recurring dive into fundamentals has enriched, informed, and animated my own work. In questioning what was most important to address each semester, I found myself repeatedly returning to the importance of slowing down, looking deeply, and finding moments of connection (the thrilling "ah-ha" moments). Just as I asked my students to do, I work experientially--that is, in conversation with the work. I delight in color’s ability to change based on light, placement, and quantity. My palette is informed by color sensations gleaned from observation, whether architectural structures, other artworks, or changing conditions of sky, light, and shade falling on landscape or bodies of water. For me, each piece is a puzzle to be unraveled and solved, and I hope the finished pieces impart a sense of that process itself: the time taken exploring and inhabiting the work.
BIO
Penelope Jones embraces architectural structure, surface texture, and color interaction in her paintings, drawings, and collages. Her work is inspired by such disparate sources as Ukiyo-e Japanese paintings, boat slip structures, the snaking streams of Maine estuaries, and architectural details. She takes great pleasure in precise lines, angular and curved shapes, and spatial ambiguity.
Born and raised in upstate NY, Penelope Jones received her BFA from MECA & D (formerly Portland School of Art) and her MFA from Cornell University. Following grad school, she lived and worked in Boston for a few years, but eventually found her way back to Portland Maine where she has resided and maintained a studio quite happily ever since. She taught visual arts (painting, drawing and design) for 30+ years - most recently and for over 25 years at Bates College, but also at Bowdoin College, Cornell University, Maine College of Art & Design, University of Southern Maine, and Southern Maine Community College.
