Maria Lise Jones

Maria Lise Jones is an intuitive abstract mark maker who creates ethereal moments on paper with fire. She holds a candle to the paper until the fire makes its mark in black to grey shades. This technique is called Fumage, French for smoking. Since her discovery of the Fumage technique in college, Maria has developed her own techniques to create unique marks, marrying the smokey impressions with her own gestural, intuitive style. Maria captures the moments where the flame and paper meet, an exciting and unpredictable act. She paints with fire for its unique quality of form, for the challenge of a potentially disastrous outcome, and for its endless metaphors and symbols. Maria’s art practice further extends from Fumage to working with mixed media such as chalk pastel, earth pigments, gel mediums, and cut out paper collage of her own design.

Maria graduated with honours from the Fine Art program in 2003 at Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario. She has shown in juried exhibitions and galleries around Toronto and Japan, and her work can be found in private and corporate Canadian collections. In 2007 Maria chose to step away and focus on her family and reenergize her art practice. Maria has reemerged as a full time artist a...

Diploma of Fine Art, Graduated with Honors, 2003
Georgian College, Barrie Ontario, Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario, Portraits of Resilience Project will be highlighted in the AGO exhibition, I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces. Curators have assembled a digital tribute to the Portraits of Resilience Project, presenting a slide show of images featured in the online gallery. Opens April 16-24, 2022

Art Gallery of Ontario, online group exhibition, Portraits of Resilience, Spring of 2021-2022

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square Toronto, Ontario July of 2003-2007

Eastern Front Gallery, Artist Run Centre, member 2007

A.W.O.L. Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, The Square Foot Show, August 2006

Hang Man Gallery, Artists Network of Riverdale, Toronto, Ontario, Group Exhibit, 2006

Queen West Art Crawl, Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Ontario September 2006

Art Square Gallery Toronto, Ontario “Smoke and Spice and Everything Nice” a two person exhibition, Gill A. Birol, Jeweller and Maria Lise Jones, Fumage paintings, November 30 - December 17, 2006

Toronto Art Expo, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario March of 2006 and 2007

Sagamihara Citizen’s Gallery, Sagamihara, Japan. Invited with four other Canadian artists by the Sagamihara Artists Association to exhibit ...