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Fred Jones' Art Exhibit in Wales' National Library

October 5, 2006

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MACOMB, IL - - “Journey to Wales,” a three-year journey of discovery shared in a collection of 60 landscape acrylic paintings by Western Illinois University Art Professor Emeritus Fred Jones, is on exhibit at the National Library of Wales.

The exhibition, which opened Sept. 23 with a formal ceremony at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, will run through Nov. 4. In addition, Jones’ celebrated “Illinois Portfolio,” which includes the prints of six artists and six poets whose works deal with the Illinois landscape, is on exhibit in an adjacent smaller gallery.

The product of several journeys Jones made to Wales from 2003-2006, the paintings in “Journey to Wales,” accompanied by small photographs which show the locations of the countryside portrayed, are divided into 10 regions, depicting Jones’ journey through the length and breadth of Wales. They also incorporate four themes: the beauty of Wales, its timeless scenery, the landscape’s transformations and Jones’ identity as a Welshman.

Jones returned to his homeland at different times of the year for "a series of spiritual as well as physical journeys and re-defined my relationship to my country of birth,” wrote Karen Price the Sept. 22 Western Mail article “The wonderful world of Wales,” which is on Wales’ national website (icWales.co.uk).

"Many people of Welsh ancestry return to Wales each year to experience a cultural renewal. My memories of Wales from more than 50 years ago gained a new consciousness,” Jones said in the article. “Since May 2003 I have driven many of the roads and back roads of Wales looking for different pictorial identities, which would come from the front seat of an automobile.

“Although the country is small compared with the United States, I discovered an amazing variety of scenes. The journal, the paintings, the digital photographs, and the global positions, make up an incomplete record of what is available,” he added. “However, the three-year journey of discovery has done much to increase my reverence for the landscape of my country of origin."

Joining Jones at the National Library of Wales opening were his wife Nancy; John and Garnett Hallwas and Ken Hawkinson of Macomb; Alan and Kitsa Schindle, formerly of Macomb and now of New York; and Harold and Marlene Gregor of Bloomington (IL).

Jones first came to the U.S. from his home country of Wales in 1964 as a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the WIU faculty in 1968 after teaching two years at Chester College of Art in England. 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. In April 2000, Jones was recognized by the WIU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honor society with its Distinguished Artist Award.

Jones 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.

A significant part of Jones' artistic production at Western was through the Western Illinois Folio Press, which he founded in 1980. He has produced five interdisciplinary portfolios, which are available to view online at www.wiu.edu/foliopress. These include two previous trans-Atlantic projects: “The Welsh American Portfolio,” (1984) featuring Welsh American artists and Welsh poets in bilingual form; and “Village Memories,” (1992) featuring tape recorded interviews and photographs of 12 older people in Jones’ home village Llanymynech. The portfolio created a “time capsule” of their lives and the last eighty years of village life. Both of these portfolios are in the rare documents collection in the British Library in London.

Samples of Jones’ “Journey to Wales” paintings can be viewed online at www.wiu.edu/foliopress/time/wales.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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