Jones’ father, a Georgia tenant farmer, recognized her appreciation for painting and sent her to art school just after the turn of the century. In the years that followed, Jones had several different occupations. In 1908, while working for the Georgia Art Supply Company in Atlanta, she was selected to be a hat model for the Sears catalogue. During the Great Depression, Jones returned to her home in Fayette County and raised tulips and other flowers to send to market, along with her family’s crops. During these years she was also able to put her art education to good use working for the federal government’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) as an art teacher in the Fayette County school district.

Throughout her life, Jones never lost her love of painting. According to her grandson, Jones "sang while she painted" and "often painted landscapes that appealed to her." Jones painted this particular scene twice. First painted in 1934, the painting depicts her brothers and half-brothers enjoying a refreshing and playful afternoon swim. Because it was so well liked by her family, Jones repeated the scene from memory in 1949, as a gift for her son and his wife.


[artist biography by Sydney Pettus]