☛ Jeffrey Catherine Jones: “Descent 3” (file name), painting, date unknown.

The caption at the bottom left of the painting reads:

In her descent and disorganization she gives cause and certainty, but I have better things to do

The American illustrator and painter Jeffrey Catherine Jones born in 1944 passed away on May 19, 2011:

In reality, though, those early painted paperback covers demonstrate that Jones was amazingly versatile, tackling a broader range of subjects in his paintings than Frazetta, painting in genres as diverse as romance, humor, mainstream fiction, horror, even Westerns. It is fair to note, however, that the bulk of Jones’ early magazine and paperback covers consisted mostly of SF, fantasy, and horror subjects. Although occasionally underbid by his younger colleague for jobs, something that nettled Frazetta at times, he eventually acknowledged Jones’s artistic gifts and stylistic growth by referring to Jeffrey Jones as “the greatest living painter.” (The Comics Journal: “Jeffrey Catherine Jones: A Life Lived Deeply” by Steven Ringgenberg, May 24, 2011)

I discovered the above image via David Apatoff’s excellent blog Illustration Art. Apatoff’s post about Jefrey Jones offers hi-res enlargements of some portion of the illustration. There’s a couple of examples below, but be sure to visit Apattof’s post for more pictures:

More resources online about/by Jeffrey Catherine Jones:

• Her official website is a rich repository for her art and thoughts. For example there are galleries of some of her drawings as well as some her paintings and cover art. There’s also a section called “reference” where one can browse through photographs Jeffrey Jones used to create his art. The artist also wrote a short autobiography:

After a few years in NYC a friend of mine, a great artist,much older than me, the late Roy G. Krenkel, told me that I was the Master of the Meaningless Gesture. Well, I do this in my art because I don’t want to tell anyone anything. Also in my words, like my poem. I want the people to bring themselves to the work, based on their own experience.

• Jeffrey Jones’ bilbiography at the Internet Speculative Fiction database
• Sequential Tart has an interview with Jeffrey Jones conducetd by Laurie J. Anderson on April 2004 (at the Atlanta ComiCon): “The Artist Returns”
• The Comic Reporter has an in-depth obituary about Jones: “Jeffrey Catherine Jones, 1944-2011” by Tom Spurgeon, May 19, 2011.
• Fellow artist Michael Netzer generously shares his memories and thoughts on his website. It certainly is one of the most warmth and interesting tribute available online for the moment: “Woman In The Man. The Many Gifts of Jeffrey Catherine Jones”, May 20, 2011.