Simple Gifts

SIMPLE GIFTS by Carroll N. Jones III

                                                      
This author began a gallery whose name was based on Simple Gifts, a work by Mr. Jones. In recent correspondence, He sent a photograph he had taken of the original building, when passing by again 4 years later.  (Look--in the window--do you see a surprised young boy?) It's interesting to compare the two.  The painting and the photograph show the precision of his craft. 

Photo from Artist's archives

Not a noveau artist, he paints in the way of the old Masters, using craftsmans' skills He began as a teen under the tutelage of his father, who was considered a Master Painter. Even in his earliest work; this attention to detail, attraction to lights and shadows.
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THE DREAM drawn at age 18

                                                    

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Mr. Jones has this to say about Simple Gifts:

"Fortunately, at some point in my childhood, I began to gain an appreciation for the simpler belongings of life. I think now, a field trip to the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, when I was 16, helped crystallize all the things I held so dear to my heart; that is, today, the core of my artistic sensibilities. The play was “Our Town”, which takes place in the fictitious town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a town not unlike the one where I spent so much of my early years. The fictional town, and west Swansey, New Hampshire, the actual town, were both in the shadow of Mt. Monadnock, an old gentle mountain that I have climbed many times. The soul of both towns, to me, is the essential spirituality behind all the images I have painted. It just can’t help but be."  (Taken from his website, carrolljonesoriginals.com)