Jon Jones
From Peaky Blinders to Pop Culture | 2023

Jon Jones’s art featuring the criminal gangs of Birmingham, based on his original research, have proved a massive hit with collectors at Castle Fine Art, but his latest collection of original oil portraits, In My Life, named after the moving song by The Beatles, sees him get more personal with his choice of subject and showcase his unquenchable passion for painting.

These works are a culmination of Jon’s artistic influences, including pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, whose work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style of the early 1960s;  street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, with his raw gestural style of painting with graffiti-like images and scrawled text, German artist Martin Kippenberger, with his irreverence and parody; Rembrandt, a personal hero of Jon’s, considered one of the greatest storytellers in art and unusually gifted in capturing moods, and Joshua Reynolds, the leading portrait painter of the 18th Century.

A fan of comics and cartoons, Jon loves the power a cartoon can have on the viewer. “The instant grab of attention and the ability to convey emotions so simplistically is not lost on me,” he explains. “Nevertheless, I want my work to be more than just a quick line drawing, however well perceived or executed.”

Mark-making is something that Jon has mastered throughout his career, and it’s how he creates representational artworks, using rough lines, marks and smudges to suggest the movement of the people he draws. “By just using several marks I can construct a face and make someone instantly recognisable.  The looseness of my work is my way of taking a risk. As a portrait painter I strive to capture an expression, mood or feeling, but I also love the juxtaposition between my ‘portrait’ and the accompanying ‘animated’ portrait, it brings a sense of humour to the earnest.”

Returning to the roots of his early works, many of Jon’s In My Life paintings feature text, whether it be a stencil with a bold statement or just a scribble about a thought or something poignant that day. Each piece of text relates to the person he has captured in a unique way.

“These are personal paintings which if anything, I paint to make me smile. All the people portrayed have inspired, provoked, and interested me throughout my life.”