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"Winter Road 15, 32"x50" acrylic, by Fred Jones.
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Award to WIU Emeritus Fred Jones in Watercolor USA 2010 Exhibition

June 15, 2010

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MACOMB, IL – Fred Jones of Macomb, an internationally known landscape artist and professor emeritus at Western Illinois University, received a cash award in the prestigious 49th Watercolor USA 2010 competition in Springfield, MO.

The national, competitive annual exhibition of aqueous media painting is on exhibition through Aug. 8 at the Springfield Art Museum.

Jones, who attended the opening reception hosted by the Southwest Missouri Museum Associates June 11, received the Kenneth M. Schuck Memorial $500 cash award for his painting, "Winter Road 15," an acrylic, 32"x50."

"'Winter Road' is part of a new series of paintings about how snow transforms the landscape in many magical ways," Jones said. "Also, how humans impact the landscape by ploughing and making roads."

The judge for the competition was Richard Martin Ash III, professor emeritus of art and director of the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, TX). He reviewed 722 entries by 401 artists from 43 states and the District of Columbia, and selected the exhibition of 116 works from slides and digital files submitted by the artists. The exhibit features 113 artists from 35 states and the District of Columbia.

"The works in this exhibition all display admirable regard for craftsmanship. The viewer is seduced by the spectrum of color – soft and mellow to harsh and noisy," said Ash.

Jones, who taught for 32 years at Western, has a prolific portfolio of artwork, much of which features the western Illinois and the Welsh landscapes.

Jones' book, "Journey to Wales 2003-2006," an exhibit of 60 paintings portraying Welsh landscapes he completed over the three-year period, is in the rare document and archive collections at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth; the University of Wales, Cardiff School of Art and Design; and Western Illinois University's Leslie F. Malpass Library. The book also includes 60 digital photographs he took of the same location, along with the geographical position of the location; and information from the diary that Jones maintained during his 10 trips to Wales to complete the exhibit.

"From 2003-2004, 'Journeys to Wales' became a series of spiritual as well as physical journeys and redefined my relationship to my country of birth," Jones said. "These visits presented me with a profound appreciation and a deeper understanding of the Welsh landscape."

Jones also has books in the archive collections at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Bradley University and the Illinois State Museum. He has won numerous awards in national and regional competitive exhibits and has received six commissions for the Illinois Percentage for Art program for his landscape works for public buildings. Many of his works are in public and private collections in the U.S. and the U.K.

In 1984, he completed the "Welch American Profile," a collection of artworks and poetry by individuals of Welsh decent who lived on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1993, Jones finished his "Village Memories" project, which included recording the recollections of 12 senior citizens who lived in Llanymynech, Jones' home village.

Jones joined the Western Illinois University art faculty in 1968 as an instructor in art education, design and drawing. He integrated computer graphics technology and interdisciplinary mixed media into Western's art curriculum, and in 1995 he was named the WIU Faculty Lecturer for his scholarly achievements and contributions to the University. Jones produced a significant part of his artistic work through the Western Illinois Folio Press, which he founded in 1980. His five interdisciplinary portfolios can be viewed at www.wiu.edu/foliopress. In April 2000, WIU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society recognized Jones with its Distinguished Artist Award. He retired in December 2000.

For more information on the Watercolor USA 2010 exhibition at the Springfield Art Museum, visit www.springfieldmo.gov/egov/art.


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