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> Derek Jones on his art: "I worked in industry and decided I wanted to go to University, so I decided to study art, in about 1976, and I graduated in 1980. Then I had various jobs in community arts, but I carried on painting, using a studio at home. But it is not always easy to work in an domestic environment, so I heard about this place and applied. "When I started doing a foundation course, part of that course was painting, and I began to realise that that’s how I could express myself. I could express ideas about my emotions, my feelings, my thoughts on the world and that sort of thing.
 | | Walking in time - by Derek Jones |
"So I started to develop a body of work from that, really. As I said – you need a space to do it. What you need to produce art is space, time, resources, in terms of financial resources and you need enthusiasm and the desire to do it, if you’ve got those ingredients, then you are half way there. "It does give you a good feeling when you produce the work. When I start a painting, I have a real desire to produce a particular image. It’s a draw, I feel I have to do it. And then when I’ve done it, if it works in my mind as a painting, then I feel I have achieved something. And that does give you a feeling of satisfaction and a desire to go on to the next thing. But it doesn’t get any easier. "'Walking in time' is a painting based on a documentary photograph of an army officer with his daughter. When I saw the image it struck with that there was more to it than just a picture of a soldier with his daughter. There’s something about it, there’s the military implications, and the implications of war and then you’ve got this very young child who is dressed in a very pink flowery dress and she’s pointing out of the picture. "In some respects she’s pointing at the viewer, whereas the officer is looking at the child, his daughter. It’s the sort of motion through the gate, the way in which they’re walking, and the way in which the figures in the background act as almost spectators, of this scene of them walking across this pathway. "There is another version of this which is painted in negative. I painted the negative one first, it’s the same painting.
 | | Walking - by Derek Jones |
"‘Walking’ this is based on a photograph I took about 20 years ago. There are similarities in the way that there is an elderly woman with a young child, but the child is black and the elderly woman is white – so there’s that sort of connection with the other paintings, in the sense that there’s a racial element. "They are just walking along the pavement, but I painted the elderly woman quite differently to the young girl. It’s the idea of people walking along, but there’s a sort of comment. And again the young girl is looking out, at the viewer, at us and there’s a sort of questioning expression in her face. "The feedback I’ve had [from his Eagle Works exhibition] has been positive. The work is actually quite challenging, quite a lot of issues in the work. You have to be careful because people quite often say things that they might think differently, if you weren't there. "My work is based around the idea of people being exploited, people being abused, people abusing themselves. The officer in the war is about the contrast with the awful things that happen in war and then you’ve got this innocent child. It sounds a bit obvious, until you see the painting. You have to see the painting, really. "I try not to think too much of the future, I just make the paintings." | 
