GERIJONESART

I completed my degree at Edinburgh College of Art and worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for several years before commencing a career in teaching. Moving to the beautiful North Essex countryside in 2018 revitalised my love of painting. I discovered the joy of walking through beautiful landscapes everyday. My compositions are inspired by light and texture and I explore depth of field to create the feeling that the observer could walk into and through the painting. Still-life is an opportunity to celebrate beautiful objects and textures I love to celebrate the glorious colours and textures in floral art. Portraiture and identity have always fascinated me. I am inspired by the likes of Sargent, Modigliani and contempary artists like Sarah Moon who seek to create settings, gestures, and compositions to best express the character of the subject. Durning Covid, I was involved with 'Portraits for NHS heroes' initiated by the artist Tom Croft, and had my portrait of the young docto,r Michael featured in the online exhibition and the stunning book ‘NHS Portraits for Heroes’ published by Bloomsbury. I have exhibited in the Mernier Gallery, London and the Castlegate Gallery in Cockermouth. 'Stepping out of Summer' (a landscape) was short-listed for the Royal Academy's Summer show 2022. My first solo exhibition was at Church Street Gallery (Saffron Walden) in 2019 and subsequently in 2021. I currently exhibit at the Saffron Walden Gallery.