It Takes Solitude
The Creative Work of Jeffrey Catherine Jones
Detail of Eternal Night Amazing Science Fiction Stories 1970
Fantasy After a modest beginning in 1967, Jones became a mainstay of virtually every publisher in the science fiction and fantasy fields, supplying scores of covers. In 1968, Jones began a long association with the work of Robert E. Howard when he illustrated Donald Grants’ Red Shadows. “When I did Red Shadows, it really helped my portfolio,” Jones said. “After that, I got a lot of work from other companies as well. A lot of publishers were trying to get Robert E. Howard’s nonConan stories into print, and I got a lot of those cover assignments. Once work was published, it was much easier to get more work. And in those days, there were so many paperback companies — there were so many possibilities. I was painting a lot. I can remember that, in the first year — ’67 or ’68 — I painted three or four covers, and the next year, I painted fifty-eight. I realized that I couldn’t keep up that pace, though.” In spite of a long association with Howard’s work, Jones wasn’t really an avid fan of sword and sorcery and heroic fantasy, the two genres with which Howard was most closely associated. “Howard’s writing was interesting, and there were so many visual elements to work with. Ironically, I don’t enjoy reading fantasy, I much prefer science fiction, but I prefer to illustrate fantasy, because it’s so visual. There’s so much that you can do with atmosphere and mood that you can’t do withscience fiction. And I really did enjoy that.”
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Detail of Red Shadows Cover Red Shadows 1968
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The truth is I wasn’t a big fan of Robert E. Howard’s. I was much, much more interested in Edgar Rice Burroughs than in Robert E. Howard. Here was this guy, Tarzan, who had been abandoned in the wilderness, and he grew up alone and had to fend for himself. As a kid, I felt the same way; I really identified with Tarzan, so I enjoyed drawing and painting Tarzan much more than any of the barbarian heroes. I saw Tarzan as graceful, feral, and I tried to depict that. He was leaner than the barbarians, he didn’t have the bulk, and he was so lithe as he moved through the jungle. And there was the fact that he was royalty in England, which gave a whole other dimension to him. He was a sophisticated character, and I liked that.” Occasionally, Jones would experiment with different artistic approaches. Some, such as his cover for Michael Moorcock’s Elric: Stealer of Souls, appear to have been done in pen and ink with painted color added. What inspired that approach? Was there a reason Jones used it so infrequently? “You’re right, the Elric piece is a colored drawing,” Jones said. “That was an ink drawing with oil wash over it; it came out looking like watercolor, but it wasn’t. I tried it, but I realized that I didn’t want to do color drawings, I wanted to paint.”
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Detail of Tarzan at the Earth’s Core Edgar Rice Burroughs Calendar 1998
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Horizons Very little of Jones’ landscape art has seen print, but those works that she has shared use a variety of techniques to convey a sense of motion that is sometimes quite stylistically different from Jones’ other art. “I think it’s because the landscapes are painted in the field, and you’ve got to get it done fast,” Jones said. “The light’s changing, things are moving, bugs are landing in your face, winds are blowing the easel over — you have to work very quickly. One thing that’s easier is that there’s not a lot of problem solving involved in a landscape like there is in illustration. The landscape is there and the challenge is capturing it. I interpret what I see as quickly as I can. I may take two or three hours to do one, but that’s all the time I have; the landscape shifts, the light changes, and now it’s a different landscape and the movement is gone. I’ve tried taking photos and working from them, but it’s not the same at all. I need to be there and feel the landscape and be part of it. “My landscapes are pretty small paintings — 14” or so by 20” or so. My illustrations are larger — 20”x30” — except for those zebra wraparound covers, which were 30”x40” or so — very large. . . ” Some of Jones’ art used heavy applications of paint. At times, it appeared that the art was done using a palette knife. “I don’t remember using a palette knife, although I’m sure I’ve used it from time to time,” Jones said. “Most of my palette
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Detail of The Dock The Art of Jeffrey Jones 1995
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knife use involves scraping paint off, not putting it on — but when you do that, what’s left is quite interesting. But it’s rare for me to use a palette knife to apply paint. I sometimes work with heavy applications of paint, though and it might look that way in reproduction.”
Pine Grove 1997
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Humans Throughout Jones’ career, her work has displayed a genuine love for the female form; few artists can communicate the fluid grace of femininity so effectively. “All through my career, I’ve loved to illustrate women,” Jones said. “While there was a period when I did a lot of landscapes, I always did drawings and paintings of women before that, going back to Idyl and before. I love drawing women. I’m not alone there. Look back through art history and you’ll see that most artists love to paint women; it’s been there for so, so long artistically. The forms in a woman — they’re very rounded and very simple and very enticing — the form makes me want to paint them. It’s not like painting a cliff or a rock face, which is what painting a man is like — jagged, rugged. But a woman is visually simple and flowing; women are a thrill to paint.” At one point, Jones attempted a life-sized painting of a woman; the result is “Blind Narcissus,” one of her more striking works. Was Jones pleased with the finished work, and did the experiment yield the results that Jones anticipated? “I talked about this in the book The Studio, in fact,” Jones said. “Ultimately, I came to realize that it’s difficult to figure out with size it is. If I paint a 5’6” woman on a 6’5” canvas, she’s only that size if you’re standing in front of a canvas. Once you step away, your perspective changes, like looking at the moon — size is determined by how it looks to the viewer, not by physical measurements.”
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Detail of Blind Narcissus The Studio 1977
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But paperback covers were far from the only Jones art to be found in those days, Jones was also a comic book illustrator, working for Warren Magazines, DC, National Lampoon, and many other publishers. Along with other artists of the time, Jones propelled fantasy from the subject of illustration to the realm of fine art. Many readers discovered Jones through the distinctive, esoteric, and unpredictable Idyl, a comic strip that appeared in the National Lampoon comics for several years. “National Lampoon actually approached me to do a one-page comic, and that’s how Idyl came about,” Jones said. “I enjoyed it immensely. I never wanted to do superhero stories; they just didn’t appeal to me. I had done some adventure comics work early in my career. I did some work for King Comics, short four-page stories in Phantom, and other books.”
Detail of I’m Age Heavy Metal 1982
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Detail of Elektra 1999
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Missed Sorely Jeffrey Catherine Jones passed away Thursday, May 19, 2011. She suffered from severe enphysema and bronchitis, as well as hardening of the arteries around the heart. In her twilight years, she painted what she enjoyed rather than producing pieces on demand to satisfy the whims of an art director or an editor. She was quite happy to be removed from the demands of commerical art, responding instead to the urgings of her own muse. “I enjoy it when people like my work, because I want to have added something to this world, or whatever gave me life, instead of just taking from it. Every work, hopefully, will leave me unsatisfied. This drives me on to the next one. As soon as I think I’ve done something great, it’ll all be over.” Although the art world lost an important and respected figure with her passing, Jones’ work will continue to amaze fans and influence future generations of artists for years to come.
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Detail of Eternal Night Amazing Science Fiction Stories 1970
When I’m doing creative work,
I don’t feel lonely, I don’t feel alone,
but it takes solitude . . . Jeffrey Catherine Jones
Over the past 40 years, there have been few artists who have received as much acclaim and garnered as much attention as Jeffrey Catherine Jones. One of the most significant artists of the 20th and early 21st centuries. From her early comic book work for Heavy Metal and National Lampoon, to her popular book covers for such authors as Dean Koontz and Andre Norton, to her move into fine art, Jones has inspired generations of painters and artists. This beautiful volume of her personal favorites will only enhance her reputation and cement her standing as one of America’s greatest artists. Detail of Tree 1977