Bold. Bright. Brimming with life.
Those are just some of the thoughts that come to mind as you gaze at one of Williamsburg-based artist Martha T. Jones’ colorful paintings. Her work often features playful patterns that urge the eye to ponder the ever changing shapes making their way across the canvass. The detail in her work is careful, while creating a sea of abstract images.
It is that unique combination of wild abandon within a world of patterned reason that has earned Jones her second Professional Fellowship in Painting from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for 2016-2017. She previously received the same fellowship in 2011-2012.
The museum awarded a total of 13 professional fellowships for the 2016-2017 season to artists across Virginia, which includes grant awards of $8,000 for each artist recognized. Another 15 undergraduate and graduate fellowships were given to art students throughout the state. Graduate fellows will receive scholarships of $6,000 and undergraduates will receive $4,000.
Jurors from within the art world select the fellowship recipients in a blind review of each applicant’s works. Valerie Cassell Oliver, senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas, judged the professional artists. Amy Moorefield, museum deputy director of exhibitions at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, evaluated the undergraduate and graduated submissions.
Since its inception in 1940, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program has awarded nearly $5.5 million to artists across the Old Dominion state.
You can see Jones' work in Williamsburg at the Linda Matney Gallery. Two recent paintings from Fall 2015 are included in the exhibit presently on view at the Matney Gallery in the Curator's Choice: Winter Salon Exhibit. The opening reception was Saturday, February 13.