Andrew Craig Jones is a painter based in Lancaster, in the north of England. His fascination with the natural world began in childhood, growing up on a small farm where he raised fowl, such as fancy breeds of pigeon, bantams and laying hens. He spent hours wandering in the woods and countryside, foraging, collecting and making things. That early fascination of nature and landscape has never left him. He loved to draw and paint and after leaving school he began his study at The Glasgow School of Art. There he qualified as a textile designer, which enabled him to earn a living in the design world.

After art school, he spent time in Antwerp working for a fashion designer, then to Manchester where he was a furniture buyer. A big move over to Australia would last for more than two decades working across furniture, interiors, textiles and leather design. Whilst living in Australia, he continued to draw, paint and attend life drawing classes alongside his design career.

In 2018 his life path took a turn and he began studying in Europe at the Barcelona Academy of Art, immersing himself in several years of learning the academic drawing and painting process in the classical tradition.

Today his practice combines that classical grounding with both studio and plein air painting, working mainly in oil. His subject matter draws from the natural, botanical world: still life compositions of flowers grown and cut from his own garden, and objects such as fragments of old pottery, shells, crustaceans and driftwood are all collected whilst beach-combing along the shoreline of Morecambe Bay, near his home in Lancaster.

He has exhibited his work in Sydney, Barcelona and Lancaster, including his last exhibition at Assembly Arts Gallery entitled “Undercover”.