Sal Jones Professional
Sal Jones lives and works in London. Her Works are held in private collections in the UK, Europe and the United States.
Using photographs of images derived from mass media sources, she explores the nature of, and our relationship with, representation; particularly with regard to human expression and communication.
Her emotionally charged paintings, portraying, primarily, fictional subjects, are an attempt to capture the action of expression out of context whilst transforming the stereotypical portrait. Unlike traditional portraiture there are no sitters and they do not represent a specific person but rather suggest an emotive state indicative of the social and cultural time we live in. The paintings portray fleeting moments, the expression of the subject offering us a glimpse into their innermost thoughts. They can be interpreted as part conversations, part musings, into which the viewer is drawn, willingly or not, into the world of the subject, both in a voyeuristic and complicit way.
The heavily cropped, close-up compositions, enhanced by the artist's use of colour and mark-making, and the use of dialogue for titles, affect our emotional response and prompt a personal empathy with the characters portrayed. The painted surface draws attention to the process of painting and to the artist’s choices in transforming the photographic source image.
"I'm interested in developing ideas around fiction and reality and shifting contexts; the cross-over between painting, photography and film, how we interpret and relate to images as spectators and how they affect us.
Recent work can be best described as a reinterpretation of the portraiture tradition with an emphasis on emotional conflict and expression. Fictional characters have been used to communicate a wider idea of human nature. I use captured moments rather than the traditional poses associated with portraiture, to this end working from photographs becomes a part of the process. I rarely do drawings in advance but use the paint to draw directly on the canvas then build up layers from washes to more gestural mark making, often combining brushwork with palette knife."
Using photographs of images derived from mass media sources, she explores the nature of, and our relationship with, representation; particularly with regard to human expression and communication.
Her emotionally charged paintings, portraying, primarily, fictional subjects, are an attempt to capture the action of expression out of context whilst transforming the stereotypical portrait. Unlike traditional portraiture there are no sitters and they do not represent a specific person but rather suggest an emotive state indicative of the social and cultural time we live in. The paintings portray fleeting moments, the expression of the subject offering us a glimpse into their innermost thoughts. They can be interpreted as part conversations, part musings, into which the viewer is drawn, willingly or not, into the world of the subject, both in a voyeuristic and complicit way.
The heavily cropped, close-up compositions, enhanced by the artist's use of colour and mark-making, and the use of dialogue for titles, affect our emotional response and prompt a personal empathy with the characters portrayed. The painted surface draws attention to the process of painting and to the artist’s choices in transforming the photographic source image.
"I'm interested in developing ideas around fiction and reality and shifting contexts; the cross-over between painting, photography and film, how we interpret and relate to images as spectators and how they affect us.
Recent work can be best described as a reinterpretation of the portraiture tradition with an emphasis on emotional conflict and expression. Fictional characters have been used to communicate a wider idea of human nature. I use captured moments rather than the traditional poses associated with portraiture, to this end working from photographs becomes a part of the process. I rarely do drawings in advance but use the paint to draw directly on the canvas then build up layers from washes to more gestural mark making, often combining brushwork with palette knife."
