Quaint Loves...Lee Jones!

If you haven't heard of Lee Jones yet - where have you been? His most recent painting of Cheryl Cole as the Angel of the North has been a national sensation, featured in many national news papers and on well known radio shows like Chris Moyles and terry Wogan. Quaint caught up with Lee during a Christmas break after working furiously for his new exhibition 'Beyond Human', which will be displayed at The Arts Club next spring as part of the 2050sports.com exhibition.

We wanted to know about Lee's art, how he got started and what his art was all about, something any budding artist would like to know. Lee's artistic journey began at age eight, 'I have been into art since childhood and won a national painting competition at the age of 8 for a painting of Spiderman which was inspired by my love of comics and superheroes'. Lee's love of superheroes and manga is still evident in his work today, and his most recent work show casing atheletes as 'superhuman', where their most powerful body parts appear encased in metal, carry on this refreshing theme. Lee continues to tell us about how his taste has become more refined and diverse as he has become inspired by other more figurative artists like Lucien Frued and Paula Rego, add to this the obvious influence of pop artists such as Rosenquist and Wahol and you have the perfect recipe for a popular modern artist.

As mentioned already, Lee's depiction of Cheryl Cole has quickly become his best known painting. Quaint asked Lee why he chose to paint Cheryl Cole and if he was expecting such an excellent reaction from the British public, here's what he had to say. 'I just made the connection between the Angel of the North - which is such a prominent and well-loved public sculpture on the Northern landscape – with Cheryl Cole, who is a real life Angel of the North with her compassionate nature, and her angelic looks.  There is so much unhappiness in the world at the moment, and the whole economic situation is so depressing, I felt that the warmth of people towards Cheryl Cole was because of the positive way she treated the contestants on X Factor, and her tears on the show seem genuine.  Something like the X Factor is a great form of escapism in hard times, and someone like Cheryl is a great example of the girl next door who came from nothing to make it big.  I knew that Cheryl Cole was popular but I didn’t anticipate that my painting would capture the public imagination in the way it did.'

Lee's other paintings depict the human form in a very natural way, reminiscent of one of his inspirations, Lucien Freud. his pictures are definitley a celebration of the natural and athletic forms, and it is obvious he doesn't buy into the 'size zero' debate. in his art Lee tries to show the powerful as beautiful. He says 'my art is more about the natural physicality of the human form, especially with my paintings of athletes such as Victoria Pendleton, whose body I have depicted as something powerful and beautiful because of that power' and this shows in many of his paintings, especially in those for his most recent exhibit.

Lee Jones ‘Beyond Human’

Thursday 26 February – Tuesday 3 March

The Arts Club, 40 Dover Street, London W1S 4NP

‘Beyond Human’ is a unique collaboration between a carefully selected group of Olympic medallists and elite Sport superstars, and top international artist Lee Jones. The‘Beyond Human’ series is an innovative marriage of art and sport, and will be exhibited in a 2050 Sports.com exhibition at The Arts Club in London’s Mayfair in February 2009.

This exhibition will also be the first chance to see Lee’s iconic painting of Cheryl Cole as the ‘Angel of the North’, which recently captured the public imagination in the run-up to the X Factor final. The exhibition will include paintings of; Olympic cycling triple gold medallist Chris Hoy; Olympic cycling gold medallist and World Champion Victoria
Pendleton; Commonwealth, World & Olympic champion sprinter Christine Ohuruogu; Jamaican sprinter and Olympic medallist Usain Bolt; one of the originators of Freerunning, Daniel Ilabaca, and World champion boxer Ricky Hattton. The Ricky Hatton painting has been featured on Sky Sports News, Granada TV and in The Times.

Also included in the exhibition will be two more elite sport superstars whose identity will be revealed at the private view.

"… a totally unique and original piece of art. It gave me a real adrenalin rush when I saw it." Ricky Hatton

The ‘Beyond Human’ series is a group of hyper-real paintings portraying elite athletes as superhuman beings, with the most finely tuned parts of the body morphing into Terminator-esque limbs. For each painting in the series Jones perceives the athlete as a machine so perfectly engineered they become ‘Beyond Human’. The ‘Beyond Human’ series is endorsed with the creative input of each Sportsperson.

Highly collectable limited edition prints of each painting, signed by the artist and athlete,are available on the 2050 Sports.com website, with a percentage of all sales going to the nominated charity of each athlete.

"I am a huge sports fan and I am inspired by the way top athletes finely tune their bodies to the point that they become almost superhuman. Another inspiration behind the painting is my love of the human form and figurative painting. Sculptural depictions of athletes from classical antiquity such as Myron’s Diskobolos (Discus Thrower) showed
these perfectly formed men and women as demi-Gods, and later in the Renaissance Artists such as Da Vinci in his Vitruvian Man depicted an idealised version of the humanform." - Lee Jones

A painting of the Nation’s sweetheart, Cheryl Cole, depicted as the ‘Angel of the North’ after Anthony Gormley’s Iconic public sculpture, will be exhibited for the first time alongside the ‘Beyond Human’ series.



Jones’s talent for figurative painting was discovered at the age of 8 when he won a national painting competition. Jones’s childhood influences of comic strips, Manga and Pop Art are still evident in his paintings, whilst more recent influences Lucian Freud, Rosenquist and Paula Rego have
infiltrated his work as it becomes more figurative.