Featured artist: Gareth Jones

some of Gareth Jones' gouache sketches

Q: From still life of fruit in your kitchen or kids’ toys, plein air in your garden or your street, you seem to fit a healthy dose of painting in your life. How do you balance your art with your full-time finance career?

Working from home helps as a daily commute can cut into your time, but I have found a few other things helpful:

Commit to paint. I remember a quote from Jerry Seinfeld about writing, where he talked about having a calendar and marking every day with a red dot where he managed to do some writing. His goal was to fill every day in the month with red dots. I try and find a way to do that with painting (though I don’t actually mark a calendar), even if it’s 30 minutes a day - it adds up.

Sacrifice the unnecessary. I don’t watch much television and haven’t for a long time (Friday night movie night with my kids and Manchester United games aside). I only have one social media account (Instagram), and notifications are disabled. I turn off most other notifications on my phone other than a twice-daily summary. I find mobile phones to be fairly catastrophic when maintaining periods of sustained concentration.

Create a routine. Routines and rules are often seen as restrictive, whereas I think the exact opposite is true. Routines give you freedom - freedom from pondering what you should be doing right now, freedom to focus. I find if I’m not in a routine, I’ll procrastinate for hours until I’m out of time and have done absolutely nothing. Make a note of what you’re doing throughout the day for each hourly period; you’ll find the wasted time you can reclaim.

Work beats inspiration. As Picasso said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” I read that Sargent used to plop himself down when painting outdoors and paint whatever was in front of him. I’m a big fan of painting whatever is in front of me, wherever I am—toys, kitchen gadgets, rooms, food, the garden, whatever. I have hundreds of small gouache sketches painted from life, many done in as little as 30 minutes. Funnily enough, they’re some of my favorite paintings of mine, and I refuse to sell them!

Be ready to paint. If you have thirty minutes, you know you can paint in, don’t waste the first 10 minutes faffing around looking for materials, etc. Have your things ready to go. Choosing a medium like gouache can help, and there is practically no setup or cleanup. Painting in a sketchbook can also allow for quick studies that aren’t precious.

Exeter Snow, 6x8, gouache on Ampersand Gessobord

 

Q: What are some things you saw as differences between working as an artist in the UK versus the U.S.?

Well, I started learning to paint in 2018, and we returned to the US in 2019, so I haven’t painted too much there. In fact, I’ve never painted outdoors in the UK; I was too busy trying to figure out the basics. We are going back for a visit this year now that travel is getting back to normal, so I’m looking forward to spending some time painting around the country as we visit. One thing I’m sure will be easier in the UK is finding somewhere to stand while painting. I’ve often found great views around New England that I simply can’t paint because there is no nearby pedestrian access.

 

Marcy Street, Portsmouth, 8x12, oil on Ampersand Gessobord

 

Q: Your paintings depict scenes with strong shadows and lighting. Do you seek these out? Or do you discover the beauty in them as you are painting?

If I’m painting outdoors, it’s really just a matter of how the light is when I’m there. My time being quite limited; I often don’t have the luxury to choose when that is. If I’m going to paint from reference for whatever reason (again, usually time constraints), I’m often limited by what time I can get out to take any photographs - typically early morning. The light can be fairly dramatic around this time, which is nice.

I’ve watched a few Ken Howard painting videos recently, and he would stand in one spot all day and paint the same scene three or four times as the lighting changed, spending an hour or so on each. He’d then choose the time that appealed to him most and work that one larger back in his studio. If I ever have the time available, I think this would be something I’d like to do.

 

State St, Portsmouth, 6x9, casein on Ampersand Aquabord

 

Q: Whether you are painting with oil, gouache, or casein, your color palette is beautifully muted. Do you have a set color palette?

Thanks! My palette has slowly changed over time as my confidence with mixing color has increased. I started with a very limited palette of Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Yellow Ochre. I painted with that for the best part of two years before starting to expand out into more of a split complementary palette. I have no formal education in art, so much of what I know initially was from books and videos on the internet. James Gurney was a big influence with his videos on gouache and casein, and he often uses a limited palette to great effect.

In 2021 I attended a workshop with Mark Boedges in Vermont, which was fantastic. His use of color is really exceptional, and watching his demonstrations was my first chance to see someone who actually knows what they’re doing painting in person. It made me realize how much more I had to learn regarding color (amongst other things).

Last year I had five one-hour mentorship sessions over the phone with Joe Paquet and subsequently attended one of his workshops on Madeline Island, WI. He introduced me to the Prismatic Palette, which I’m slowly trying to integrate into my painting. He is a rare combination of a great painter AND teacher. I highly recommend anyone wanting to take their painting skills to the next level to seek him out. The prismatic palette he teaches consists of:

• Ivory Black
• Ultramarine Blue
• Cobalt Blue
• Manganese Blue
• Alizarin Crimson
• Cadmium Red
• Cadmium Scarlet
• Cadmium Orange
• Cadmium Yellow
• Cadmium Yellow Light
• Titanium White

 

Marcy Street, Portsmouth II, 8x12, oil on Ampersand Gessobord

 

Q: What do you love most about Ampersand panels for your work?

I highly value the quality, consistency, safety, and adaptability of the panels. I regularly use Aquabord and Claybord when painting with gouache or casein. Aquabord has many of the properties of an absorbent watercolor surface but with the added benefits of the ability to remove paint from the surface with no danger of damaging it and being able to seal the painting (I use Spectrafix FinalFix) and frame without glass in a Floaterframe or regular frame which is great. Claybord is a really interesting surface, very absorbent but at the same time extremely smooth. It allows for some effects that simply aren’t possible with other surfaces but can take some practice to get used to.

When painting with oils, I often use Gessobord for smaller paintings (up to around 9x12) and canvas or linen mounted to Hardbord when painting larger. It’s quite surprising how much more vivid colours can be on the Gessobord surface versus a regular acrylic-primed surface. There’s also a nice texture and absorbency, so it isn’t slippery, which I appreciate. The packs of three are fantastic if you want to do a lot of small studies on, e.g., 6x8 panels.

Another thing I appreciate is the custom cut service on the Ampersand website. I tend to paint at ratios like 3:2, 2:1, and even 3:1, which are not the easiest to find in certain sizes, so it’s great to be able to order those in bulk easily.

 

 

Artist Bio:

Gareth Jones is a dual UK/US national born in the Lake District, Cumbria, and enjoyed drawing from an early age. He received a degree in Architecture from The University of Sheffield in 2001, but uninspired by the idea of six to seven more years of study to become an Architect, he taught himself computer programming instead. He ultimately ended up working as a Software Engineer at a trading firm based in Chicago. While living in Chicago, a Christmas gift of life drawing lessons from his wife rekindled his love of drawing. In 2018 (back in the UK), he began experimenting with paints - first oils, then gouache and casein. Gareth currently resides in Hampton Falls, NH, with his wife and two children, having relocated from the UK in 2019. To see more of Gareth's work, visit his website and Instagram.