By NIKI TURNER
MEEKER | Lori Jones was a baby when her family moved from Loveland, Colorado, to Meeker. The family ranched on Piceance Creek before moving to the Keystone Ranch south of Maybell in 1986.
“My sisters and I went all through school in Meeker. I had gone through the third grade on Piceance Creek, attending the Rock School with just three kids in my class,” Jones said via email.
“I can remember taking my pencils down to the corrals as a little bitty kid, determined to draw this wild gray horse my dad had in the pens. He was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen and I remember crying when I couldn’t make my drawing look anything like what I had pictured in my mind. I’ve been working at it ever since.”
She took art classes throughout school and said she “really lucked out” when Andy Goettel started teaching art at Meeker High School when she was a junior. Goettel entered one of her drawings in an art contest and encouraged her to “stick with it.”
“I’m still connected with him and we share art and ideas back and forth and I believe without his encouragement, I probably wouldn’t have continued to pursue art as a career,” Jones said.
As a young mother, she put herself through school at CNCC in her 20s. She wanted to be an art teacher, but a lack of available classes locally pushed her toward an English degree instead. “All these years later, it feels good to finally be teaching art,” she said.
In 2008, she moved to Kansas with her parents, David and Patty Johnson, and husband David Jones, where they continue a family cow-calf operation and raise and train ranch horses. Lori and David have two sons and three grandkids in Texas, a daughter and son and three more grandkids in Kansas, and another son in Colorado.
“My husband was raised in Guthrie, Texas, and has taught me a lot. I’ve never worked around a better hand, and I pack my camera with me everywhere we go, taking pictures of David and our family and friends at work, for references in my drawings,” Jones said of her artistic process.
“We [David and Lori] had been married a good while before he ever knew that I could draw. It just hadn’t been something I could devote a lot of time to. He really encouraged me to do something with it, and in the last few years, my career has really taken off. We made a large studio room in our house just for me to work in and showcase my art. I open it to the public a few times a year and schedule studio visits as requested. With our kids all grown, I have a lot more time to concentrate on my artwork,” Jones said.
Jones’ artistic medium of choice is pencil, although she dabbles in watercolors and does some firearm engraving.
“…the pencils are always what I come back to. They’re so handy to carry around and I always have a pencil set and a sketch book with me wherever I go. My drawings all begin with an idea, or of something neat I’ve seen that I want to try to capture on paper. I take a ton of photos of our day to day life, realizing that an ordinary day for us is not something most folks get to see every day, and I feel blessed to not only live this really unique lifestyle, but to be able to share it with the world. I like my drawings to have really strong light, which creates strong shadows and those contrasts are really what make a pencil drawing shine,” Jones said.
Two of her pencil drawings have been submitted to the Meeker Classic Sheepdog Championship Trials poster art contest for this year, and she’ll have her art on display at Streamline Realty (600 Main St.) in Meeker from Sept. 6-8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an open house on Wednesday, Sept. 6 from 6-9 p.m.
In addition, Jones will be teaching her two-day art workshop titled “Drawing With Confidence” to Meeker on Sept. 6-7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
All supplies are provided for the workshop, which Jones said is “designed for everyone from beginners wanting to learn how to break an image down and getting it laid out on paper to the more advanced student wanting to hone their drawing skills with more detailed textures and bolder shading techniques. It’s a fast-paced, fun class that generally allows a student to complete a drawing of their choice, from start to finish.”
The class, for ages 15-and-up, is $225 and includes all supplies. Class size is limited but as of press time there was some availability. Call or text 620-930-8119 or email [email protected] to reserve a seat.
