Artist of the Month: Peter Jones
By: Audrée Peters
Featured September 2007

They say that seeing is believing.

But put a clever photographer /artist in front of a computer, and you won’t know whether to believe it or not.

Are the multiple mirrored images of Red Mountain shrouded in fog an optical illusion?

How about that Loch Ness Monster posing for a photo?

Look again.

Peter Jones gets a kick out of playing with the images of the mind by mixing them up to see what comes out in his art. It may be traditional photography with artistic enhancement, fantasy or abstract, but he is always thinking outside the box.

One of his more recent “outside the box” ideas was the purchase of two large vintage gallery cameras, circa 1918 and 1922, with which and he now also does vintage image photography.

“They’re old, big boxy cameras made of wood,” he says. “And it’s pretty neat. It’s really something to take a picture with that camera and have it come out in the old vintage style photograph.”

Jones, who has been an avid photographer since his father gave him his first camera when he was 10 years old, has progressed over the years from dedicated photography to graphically enhanced artwork with Adobe Photoshop.

Several years ago, when he was doing straight commercial photography, he got interested in computers and programming. Before user-friendly graphic programs even came on the scene, he had been creating his own programs to use for his art photography.

“Then I discovered Photoshop,” he says of the program Adobe released.

Over time, as he learned more about the capabilities of the program, he never looked back. 

Starting with a single photograph, he inserts objects from other photographs, changes and adds colors, moves objects around – with astounding results that are more brilliant and expressive than the originals, often appearing three-dimensional and at times ethereal or abstract.

From scenic to fantasy, this Fountain Hills artist never loses the excitement of discovery as he pores over his computer, blending photos, colors and images, trying new techniques for the dramatic artwork he produces.

Everything stimulates his imagination. He has even taken dead leaves from the plants in his gallery, scanned them into the computer, layered two separate images on top of each other through Photoshop application, and enhanced it with vivid colors to create a geometric abstract art piece.

“I work with algorithms,” he says. “An algorithm is a procedure for doing something to get to a certain end. I use a certain procedure to feed in different images, and various applications for the results,” he explains. “I play with the images until it feels right.”

While he has used this method for nearly 30 years, and it has become his trademark medium, Jones says his work is not exclusive to the art scene.

“Others use various algorithms and applications to achieve their own results,” he says.

In fact, he and two other artists, Michele Fitzsimmons and Alan Emerson Hicks, are sharing a show entitled “Algorithm” at the Peter Jones Gallery in Chicago, through Sept. 9.

Jones was an art, drawing and photography instructor at a Greenville, N.C., college then at Loyola University in Chicago, his home town, for many years.

He was also one of the members of the faculty to coordinate the art galleries at Loyola.

In 1977 he decided he was tired of long hours for low pay, and left to open his own small storefront studio gallery in Chicago.

He soon after moved to his present, larger gallery with 8,000 square feet, where he has displays, holds shows, and has artist studios and a “black box” theater.

The “black box” theater was originally a photography studio for commercial product photography, which he had painted black to control the light for his photography, he explains.

“Some of my students said it was a great place for a theater studio, so we mostly just have shows there now.”

Jones says he likes having his own gallery and admits, “it’s nice having good walls to display your work and really see it in a gallery setting.”

With traveling back and forth to Chicago, Jones and his wife had wanted for many years to buy a home in Fountain Hills. He found what he wanted in 2000, and enjoys the beautiful desert scenery.

“I’ve picked up a western flavor (in my artwork) since moving here,” he says with a grin.

But Jones was no stranger to the area.

“Actually, I have been coming here from Chicago since 1952 when my dad, a doctor, used to bring me with him and we camped all over the area sometimes on the Hopi Indian reservation,” he remembers.

“I still like to wander the trails to take photographs.

The Dixie Mine Trail is one of my favorites.”

Jones has participated in some of the local juried art shows, and won a first place award for one of his pieces a few years ago in the Fountain Hills Arts Council Juried Art Show.

Since his revelation into graphics and Photoshop, Jones has not done artwork in pure paint medium.

“I don’t paint any more,” he says, although he occasionally applies accents to the prints with a brush.

He finishes his artwork in Giclee prints for himself and other artists up to full poster size with his specialized commercial printer.

Giclee -- pronounced “zhee-klay” -- is a form of printmaking technology in which high resolution digital images are printed with special inks onto canvas, fine art and photo-base paper. The Giclee printing process provides better color accuracy than any other means of reproduction, resulting in prints that look like they actually have been painted with a brush and paint medium.

“I like the feeling of watercolors, so my work is not going to look like a standard photograph, it’s going to look like a watercolor,” he says.

“I do a lot of different things,” the busy artist says, “I try everything from commercial art to art with western influences and abstract.

“And I can pretty much do what I want to do, now,” he adds with a smile.

Peter Jones’ work is on display at the Peter Jones Gallery in Chicago and, starting in October, also will be on display at Textures Gallery on Marshall Way in Scottsdale.

While his Web site is in transition, he can be reached through the Peter Jones Gallery at (773) 472-9723, or by e-mail at pete@peterjonesgallery.com.