Allen Jones

I came to understand abstraction through experience rather than theory.

As a teenager working on the Mississippi River, I once watched industrial smoke and oil catch the sunset and transform into something visually extraordinary. The realization that pollution could appear beautiful unsettled me. It taught me that perception alters meaning — that beauty and contradiction can occupy the same space.

Years later, a blind woman experienced one of my paintings through touch. As she moved her hands across rough and smooth passages of paint, guided only by texture, I understood that surface itself is language.

That understanding became part of me.

Today, it is almost automatic. When I build a painting, I am aware not only of color and composition, but of how the surface moves — where it rises, where it smooths, where it resists. Texture is not decoration; it is structure.

I begin with a limited palette, expanding it through value and subtle temperature shifts. At a certain point, the painting directs the next decision — placement, pressure, scale. The process becomes less about control and more about response.

I do not paint to reproduce beauty.
I construct surfaces where perception, contradiction, and physical sensation intersect —...

Alton Sr. High Fine Art
Alton Ill
Lewis and Clark University Fine Art
Godfrey il.
St. Louis School of Design
St. Louis mo.
School of Assoc. Arts Fine Art
St. Paul mn.

Dec. 4th 2015
Solo exhibition in the North East Arts district Mpl. Mn. at the Gt. Artistry.

NEW YORK, NY, June 10, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Drawing upon cosmic inspirations and a penchant for abstraction, painter Allen Jones applies oil to canvas in compelling fashion, alternating between knife, brush and drip to strike an elusive balance between line, light and color. Layers of paint flare up with powerful zeal, challenging viewers to explore the lush textures carefully rendered within the plane. While negative and positive forces alike compete for significance, Allen puts his imagination to work, refining intense combinations into a sharp connective thread between his vision and the emotions of the viewer. The resulting dynamic centers around the artist's interest in creating a universal language with his work — essentially, the creation of a transcendental space where all can live and play despite differing philosophies and viewpoints. The result is a series of engaging and enthralling pieces, primed for endless discovery and interpretation.
Allen Jones currently lives and works in Amery, Wisconsin on lake Wapogasset, where he experiments with light-bending mediums such as metallic paint, spray paint and color-morphing pain...