S.L. Jones, was an expert mountain fiddler as well as a
carver, and was known for his image portraits. Jones worked
for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and by lying about his
age worked as a laborer in 1918. By the time he retired in
1967 he was a shop foreman. S.L. started to carve after the
death of his first wife. In the early 1970's he began taking
some of his small carvings of rabbits, dogs, horses and
chickens to county fairs; the many ribbons he won were
pinned to a bulletin board in his shed studio. By early 1975
Jones had started to make larger carvings, as well as heads.
These were displayed for sale at the gift shop in a nearby
State Park, and gradually found their way farther afield to
galleries and museums. Jones has been described as a image
artist. His figures, whether carved or drawn, male or female
are generally smiling. "The heads look like I feel," he once
said, "happy or sad --- they aren't of anyone in particular
but they come from me". Jones' drawings of heads related to
his sculptures. These drawings of faces, frozen in time, and
his stiff full figures are especially memorable. Jones' work
has been shown in numerous major museum and gallery
exhibitions, including the Museum of American Folk Art, the
Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center and the Huntington
Museum of Art.
|
SOLD |
Carved Chicken 8 x 3 x 10 $300 colored with crayon, dated 1994, signed, one of his last carvings |
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
SOLD |
Cow, Man and Pig 17 x 14 framed pen and pastel on paper $450 |
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
Mother and Child 20 x 24 framed $950 pen, pastel and paint on paper |
SOLD |
All Smiles 10 x 14 $175 pen and pastel on paper |
