Rusty Jones, In Celebration of Nature: “I don’t find the landscape, it finds me. If I go out with a preconceived idea of what I want to paint, I can drive around for hours and never find it. But if I go out with a clear head, full of creative energy and no preconceptions usually a scene will present itself within a few minutes.
Then I am free to open myself to whatever is in front of me and tackle the painting with vigor and passion. This is when I do my best work, the work that excites me and typically transforms itself into a larger studio version where I share what I found, put down in paint and throw a frame around it to share with the world. If I am not painting, I am thinking about painting. If I am painting, I’m thinking about nothing else.”
Prior to joining MediVisuals in 2004, Rusty was owner and CEO of Lawyers Media, a full-service demonstrative evidence development company. Concurrently, Rusty was owner and CEO of Pinnacle Publishing company, a medical publishing company specializing in patient education materials distributed through private medical practices. As a medical illustrator, Rusty has produced illustrations for numerous medical journals, patient education publishers, pharmaceutical companies, medical product companies, and medical textbook publishers.
In addition to medical illustration, Rusty has become a nationally recognized landscape painter with representation in seven galleries throughout the western United States. Rusty is also well-known for his sports illustrations that have appeared in Golf Magazine, Golf Digest magazine, Golf Journal and Golf Illustrated Magazine. His sports art has also been published by the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, the United States Olympic Committee, and Golf House, the national museum for the United States Golf Association.
When not producing medical art, Rusty can be found traveling throughout the country painting on location as he gathers research material for larger studio works. His golf illustrations once landed him a portrait commission and lunch at the 1991 Masters Golf Tournament with 1935 Masters champion Gene Sarazen.
View Rusty Jones Paintings
I do not choose the landscape, it chooses me. I’m drawn to it and the urge to express myself with paint is overwhelming. Mother Nature is a terrific designer but sometimes she needs a little help when it comes to painting her likeness on canvas. Plein air painting, in particular, is the purest form of artistic expression because you do not have time to mull things over. You see what’s in front of you, you mix a color and you put it down with authority. I will drive for days just to have the opportunity to paint a particular location like the California Coast, Rocky Mountain National Park or Big Bend here in Texas.
Painting the landscape allows me to emotionally connect with it and in short two hour bursts of energy, emotion, inspiration and gusto create something totally unique. Every painting I have sold it is because the buyer made an emotional connection to it. If I have created something that reminds someone of something special in their life, then I have reached out and touched their heart with my art. How cool is that?