Yvonne Jones

Yvonne Jones is a contemporary Welsh artist, known for her paintings which toe the line between abstraction and figuration. She studied Fine Art at Liverpool College of Art and Winchester School of Art. Most recently, she has made a series of works about her experience of breast cancer at the Centre for Cancer Immunology at Southampton University. Her paintings are characterised by their rich colours and broad gestural brushstrokes.

The figures in “Waiting for the Rain to Stop” are the artist’s parents during a visit to the artist’s home. My parents are playing Scrabble, as I was, until moving away from the table, leaving the empty chair. The father’s figure dominates the work, which becomes a metaphor for his domineering role in the family.  The male head is portrayed as strong and erect, while the female head is submissive, even cowering.

The artist has said that there was some ambiguity to her father’s relationship with women. For example, he drove Yvonne and her friend to their college interviews, yet on the day she was offered a place, he angrily said that it was a waste of tax-payers’ money to send women to college. She nonetheless accepted the place. This was one of the works which helped her to understand the patriarchal structure of her family life. She now identifies as a post-human feminist.