Early life Her father, Thomas Vreeland Jones was a building superintendent who later became a lawyer after becoming the first African-American to earn a law degree from Suffolk Law School; her mother, Carolyn Jones was a cosmetologist. She was born in Boston. Jones’ parents encouraged her to draw and paint as a child in watercolor. During childhood her mother took her and her brother to Martha’s Vineyard where she became lifelong friends with novelist Dorothy West. She attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. Meanwhile she took Boston Museum of Fine Arts evening classes and worked as an apprentice in costume design. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of 17. From 1923 to 1927 she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston studying design, taking night courses at the Boston Normal Art School. She also pursued graduate work at the Design Art School and Harvard University. She continued her education even after beginning work, attending classes at Columbia University, and receiving her bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1945, graduating magna cum laude. Work In 1929, she was recruited to join the art department at Howard University in Washington D.C. and remained as professor of design and watercolor painting until her retirement in 1977. While developing her own work as an artist, she was also known as an outstanding mentor. In 1934 Jones met Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, who would become a prominent Haitian artist, while both were graduate students at Columbia University. They corresponded for almost twenty years before marrying in the south of France in 1953. Jones and her husband lived in Washington, D.C. and Haiti. They had no children. He died in 1982. In the early 1930s Jones exhibited with the William E. Harmon Foundation and other institutions, produced plays and dramatic presentations, and began study of masks from various cultures. In 1937 she received a fellowship to study in Paris at the Académie Julian. During one year’s time she produced over 30 watercolors. She returned to Howard University and began teaching watercolor painting.
12 Publizr Home