About

Martyn Jones is a contemporary painter who works from his studio based in Cardiff, Wales, U.K. Jones graduated M.A. Fine Art, at Chelsea School of Art, London and was awarded Junior Fellowship at Bath Academy of Art. Among his tutors were the British artists Patrick Heron and Adrian Heath.

Current: Gloria Delson Contemporary, Los Angeles, Ffin-y-Parc Gallery, Wales, U.K.

‍Artist statement:
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‍My works are abstract, but the inspiration and basis for them are found in reality and the world around me. My experiences of the world are the prime material for abstraction employing a personal alphabet of shapes and colour. My responses are really a stream of consciousness drawing on this alphabet that I hope evokes the way in which I see the world which to me is always as a place of beauty. It is an attempt to convey a sense of the grandiose and the sublime that is timeless and eternal.
I try to create a sensory experience through my work, the visual is obvious, but sound, touch, smell and even taste are important in the kind of synaesthesia that Kandinsky, Heron and Miro visually communicate, so that a work might suggest more than what is seen. I celebrate vibrations or sound through the use of colour in painting. However, I sometimes work in silence, listening to the noise of the natural world and this again informs the shapes and colours that I use.

A further sense comes in the use of saturated colour that you can almost taste. I paint expanses of colour but within these are small jewel-like accents of bright glimmering ultramarine, umber, violet or viridian creating deep sumptuous chromatic blacks on the canvas. Turquoise is often used and  is a tranquil colour, transcendent, quiet and deep. One key motif in my work is the apparent chalk line. I see these as precious and fragile, it is time-consuming to achieve. They seem to be simple, a gesture made by a child in chalk, and I feel that I capture the spontaneity of a child’s drawing with them, however, these lines cannot be created with a single or continuous brushstroke, they are painstakingly made with a tiny brush. The overall effect has a sense of immediacy, but the creative process is very different to this.
I think ultimately, I am searching for something unobtainable, a calm tranquillity, an impossible form of transcendence, a perfect existence and that is what brings me back to the canvas.

Selected Solo-shows
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‍2019 Trinity House Paintings, U.K.
2018 Heath Gallery, Palm Springs, California, U.S.A.
2017 Ffin-y-Parc Gallery, Wales, U.K.
2015 Ffin-y-Parc Gallery,Wales, U.K.
2015 Artefact Pardo Gallery, Florida, U.S.A.
2014 Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff, Wales.
2013 Ffin-y-Parc Gallery,Wales, U.K.
2012 Artefact Pardo Gallery, West Palm Beach, U.S.A.
2012 Oriel Ynys Mon, Anglesey, North Wales.
2012 Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff, Wales.
2011 Off the Wall Gallery, Cardiff, Wales.
2010 Robert Steele Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
2010 Off the Wall Contemporary Art, Cardiff, Wales.
2009 Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff.
2008 Robert Steele Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
2008 Cynon Valley Museum, Wales.
2008 Rhondda Heritage Museum, Wales.
2007 Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff.
2006 The Project Room, Robert Steele Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
2005 Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff.
2005 Oriel Mon, Angelsey, North Wales.
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Selected Group Shows
2023 At Cross Purposes QSS Gallery Belfast, Ireland.
2023 Gloria Delson Contemporary, L.A.
2023 Alumni, Oxmarket Contemporary, U.K.
2023 Trinity House Paintings UK
2023 Gloria Delson Contemporary, L.A.
2023 Washington Winter Show, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2022 Trinity House Paintings, UK
2022 Thompsons Gallery, UK
2022 Gloria Delson Contemporary, L.A.
2021 Palm Beach Show, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2021 Trinity House Modern, U.K/SF
2020 Palm Beach Art Show, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2020 L.A. Art Show, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2019 San Francisco Art Fair, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2019 Trinity House Modern, San Francisco, USA
2019 L.A. Art Show, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2019 Chicago Art Fair, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2018 San Francisco Art Fair, Trinity House Paintings, USA.
2018 Manchester Art Fair, Ffin-y-Parc Gallery.
2018 Group Exhibition, Trinity Modern, U.K.
2018 Fresh Contemporary Art Fair U.K.
2018 London Hampstead Art Fair U.K.
2017 Heath Gallery, Palm Springs, California, USA. 2017 Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, USA. 2016 ARAGÓN 232, Barcelona, Spain. 2016 Art Fair Cologne, Germany.
2015 British and International Artists, Bebb Fine Art, U.K.
2015 Exposicion Colectiva, Art Nou Mil Lenni, Barcelona.
2014 Espacio 120, Contemporary Art Fair, Barcelona, Spain.
2014 Nina Torres Fine Art, Miami, USA.
2014 Artefact Pardo Gallery, Florida, USA.
2013 Brick Lane Gallery, Shoreditch, London.
2013 Number Nine Gallery, Birmingham, U.K.
2013 Group Show, Gorstella Gallery, Chester, U.K.
2012 Ffin-y- Parc Gallery, Conwy, North Wales.
2011 ‘Jones/Melero’ Espacio, 1440 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, USA.
2011 Ffin-y-Parc Gallery, Conwy, North Wales.
2011 ‘ArtAt’ Arts Festival, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
2011 ‘Etcetera Oxmarket Arts Centre, U.K.
2010 Group Show, Blackheath Gallery, London.
2010 Group show, Cowbridge Gallery, Wales.
2009 Summer in Suite 402, Robert Steele Gallery, New York.
2009 Group Show, Robert Steele Gallery, New York.
2009 National Eisteddfod, Bala, Wales.
2009 International Artexpo, Jacob Javits Center, New York.
2008 Ffres Ysbryd/Spirit Wales Newport Museum and Gallery, Gwent
2008 International Artists Summer Show, Robert Steele Gallery, New York.
2008 56 Group Wales, Tenby Museum, Oriel Myrddin, Wales.
2007 Chelsea Summer Dreaming, Robert Steele Gallery, New York.
2007 Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff.
2007 West Wales Arts Centre, Fishguard, Wales.
2007 Attic Gallery, Swansea, Wales.
2006 On the Horizon, Robert Steele Gallery, New York.
2006 56 Group Wales, Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff.
2005 Robert Steele Gallery, New York.
2004 Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York.
2004 International Artexpo, Jacob Javits Center, New York.
2002 A Propos, Nine Contemporary Artists, National Gallery of Wales.
2001 Painting Ysbryd/Spirit Wales, Mall Galleries, London.
2000 First Prizewinner, Arts Purchase Prize, University of Glamorgan, Wales.
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‍Forthcoming Exhibitions
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2025 Solo-show, QSS Gallery, Belfast N. Ireland
2023 Trinity House Paintings, Solo Show.
2023 Gloria Delson, Los Angeles, USA.
2023 56 Group Wales 'At Cross Purposes' Touring Show.
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Collections
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Chippenham Museum, Wiltshire, UK.
‍Pure Freight Inc., Los Angeles, CA.
Cyfarftha Castle Museum, Wales.
Chapter Art Cardiff Wales
Jalisco Government, Guardalajara, Mexico.
Chandler KBS, U.K. / Europe.
Off the Fence Productions, Amsterdam.
Ashby Media, New York.
Harlem Homes, New York.
Feederle-Schlaffer, Zurich, Switzerland.
Allied Irish Bank, Wales, U.K.
Cynon Valley Museum, Wales.
University of Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
University of Glamorgan, Wales.
Contemporary Art Society, London.
Wales International Center, New York.
Mosaic Information Solutions Ltd., Aberdeen, Scotland.
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External Links
gdcagallery.com
56groupwales.org.uk