Edward Jones, b.2000, is a contemporary landscape painter from Leeds, England. With a heavy emphasis on depicting mountainous regions, he explores familiar areas of
Snowdonia as well as those further afield, using an analogue camera to capture moments from his expeditions. A prolific output of photography, drawing and painting leads to
large scale oil paintings on canvas. Layering tonally similar colours, which he works up to achieve a darkness in the palette that produces an ambiguous sense of light, Jones’
depicted subjects are not fixed in a specific time or space. Non-systematic patterns are embedded into the final layer, a form of surface camouflage that encourages the pictorial
experience to unravel over time. The introspective, quiet and foreboding images respond to long exposure within cold and bleak environments, contrasting the character of
London, where Jones now lives and works. His alliance with the desolation and the wilderness of sparsely or uninhabited spaces are examples of escapism, reclaiming the
memories of his earlier life.

Manifesting notions of the connections between land and culture from Peter Davidson’s book, Idea of North helped to formalise Jones’ spiritual attraction of the ‘dearth uplands’
of the northern hemisphere. Jones also feels the importance of having authorship over the landscape, exploring its relationship with set design and then subsequent methods of
producing a natural arena. Activated by the legacy of post-romantic landscape painting; the work and rational of the Group of Seven and the Nabis and have enriched Jones’
judgements to venerate the natural world whilst still giving space to amplify mood and emotive response. Where a romanticised view on his work may be applicable, the paintings
are rather about formal decision making in his studio, and discreet chromatic choices in an arrangement of landscape tropes.

Courtesy of the artist.