Lot 37.

Acrylics on canvas: “Celestial cox” by SR Jones
(Price Guide: R27,000)

Acrylics on canvas
26cm wide X 31cm high framed
15cm wide X 20cm high before framing.
'Celestial cox' combines a love of music with unabashed mystic leanings. Some music can transport one to realms beyond worldly travails. The cello, in particular, has that ability. 'Life is but a dream', as the children's song goes.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1951, I moved to Cape Town at age 5. My mother being the artist Mary Hart, my creative bent was much encouraged. On matriculating from Diocesan College in 1968 I studied Graphic Design at the Cape Town College for Advanced Technical Education. On receiving my Diploma I spent a year as set painter for CAPAB. All the while I would paint in my free time.

Holding my first one-man exhibition at the Goodman Wolman Gallery, Cape Town in 1975, I've been a full-time artist ever since. Residing in Fish Hoek these past three decades, it's rustic and maritime ambience infuses my canvases. Essentially figurative, man's relationship to nature is a central theme in my paintings. Variously described as dreamlike, mystical and soft-hued, they radiate a timeless quality. Loath to follow trends and fads, my art, like my taste in music, harks back to a bygone era. I see the work of art as a product of the human spirit, which is essentially celebratory of nature.

As with that infant in Nigeria, I paint sprawled on the floor, canvas flat before me, the accoutrements of my trade scattered around me. With ever-present music, usually of spiritual purport, oft-times I feel like a Michaelangelo in reverse in a Sistine Chapel in dire need of a good paint job!
2025 will be the year of my 50th anniversary as exhibiting artist. I've long given up on trying to appease the tastemakers of the day. Hard to categorize, my oeuvre veers twixt symbolic and metaphysical with occasional concessions to the surreal. Regardless, an indelible signature is my lot, my paintings' creator readily identifiable.

Major shows include:
1979 Cape Town Biennale
1981 Republic Festival Exhibition
1982 Cape Town Triennial
1985 Cape Town Triennial.
Local collections include:
Iziko, Pretoria Art Museum, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum, Pietersburg Art Gallery, University of the Orange Free State, Sasol, Tuynhuys, Sanlam, Telkom, and BoE. Innumerable group shows and over 30 one-man exhibitions including the Irma Stern Museum, Atlantic Art Gallery, Cape Gallery, Gowlett Gallery and Goodman Wolman Gallery.

Email : srjones@zsd.co.za
Contact: 0748155461