Mike Jones 1941 - 2022
Mike Jones was born in 1941, in Pontardawe where the Western edge of the South Wales coalfield gives way to the farming communities of Carmarthenshire and beyond. He is among the last of the artists, like Josef Herman and Will Roberts, able to observe these industrial communities before they began their long, slow, painful decline.
Though the figures are often isolated and the context simplified, he is able to define the characters of the people he paints, and the relationships between them clearly and economically. And he captures something particular to his time and place, combining the contemporary and the nostalgic into something timeless and affecting.
With this vision, managing to depict the present, and evoke the past with wit and tenderness, Mike has built a considerable reputation and a loyal following. His affection for his subjects is clear, and whether his subject is a collier, a farmer, or the woman in the Post Office, he is one of the few remaining artists able to bear witness to, and record the unique character of this vanishing (or vanished) world with authenticity.
Mike Jones has had several successful exhibitions with us including solo shows in 2012, 2014, 2017 & 2019 & November 2021.
Mike Jones sadly passed away in January 2022.