Michael Jones
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Michael was born in Macclesfield, England, in January 1956 and emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of 12, he attended high school in NSW until 1971, he wanted to pursue an art career and worked in the printing industry for 12 months, but his father had “better ideas” and Michael started working with his father in the building industry where he stayed until 1984.
Michael joined the NSW Police Service in January 1985 and performed in many and varied positions. It was his stint as the District Community Relations Officer, in the Broken Hill District during 1988/89, where he met Pro Hart for the first time. This meeting had a profound effect on his life, Pro was his landlord, but the Hart family became more than that, Pro’s wife, Raylee, took on a motherly role and Pro was his mentor, during many evenings spent in the Hart studio’s, Michael was being encouraged to continue painting and exhibiting in Pro’s commercial gallery space, “The Ant Hill Gallery” as a result of this encouragement by Pro, Michaels paintings were getting recognized more and more.
At the end of 1989, Michael returned to Sydney’s west and in 1992 he became a Police Prosecutor and traveled extensively within the Police District and eventually back to his beloved Broken Hill, where he would arrive on a Saturday, for the start of the following working week, getting picked up from the airport by a fellow artist, great friend, Clark Barratt, then driving about 50 kilometres out of town and paint for the rest of the day, half the night and all day Sunday.
It was an accident during a high speed pursuit, early in 1992, which eventually ended his Police career in 1998, being pensioned off with a couple of herniated discs in the neck, after an operation, many months of physio’ and a battle with depression, he started painting again and moved back to Broken Hill.
Michael lived in Broken Hill for three years, gathered enough reference material to last a lifetime, then opened his own gallery in Tasmania, where he lived until 2003, he re-married and is now residing in Maroochydore, Queensland, but still paints the outback images he loves.
Michael’s paintings have found their way into many art collections around the world, Rolf Harris has two of Michael’s paintings, Pro Hart has got at least three, the ex NSW Premier, John Fahey has his portrait painted by Michael, as does Pro’s wife, Raylee, which he did for her 60th birthday. Other politicians in NSW have purchased Michael’s work, Peta Seaton, the member for the Southern Highlands has got one work on paper, as does Wal Murray, once Deputy Premier of NSW. Michael’s work has gone to America, Japan, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Bali, China, Hong Kong, Italy, Greece. In Australia, Michael’s work can be found at the 'Tree Frog Gallery', Montville. 'Art on Argent', Broken Hill. "Gallery Beneath", Mooloolaba. "Horizon Gallery", Silverton
ARTIST'S REASON FOR PARTICIPATING
I love painting and have never had the opportunity to paint Orang-utan before, also I was nominated to participate by my good friend, Peter Browne and it is a good cause.
Desi
On the 2nd of March 2012 our team ventured out on a new rescue operation. Our investigator had discovered an orangutan being held captive in the town of Pemangkat, Melano. Together we set out with the forestry department and our collaborating organisation Yayasan Gunung Palung to collect the young female.
The young female orangutan, called Desi, had been with the family for over two years, living outside their house in a steel cage of about 2 square metres. She was very dirty and clearly distressed when our team arrived, but otherwise in good condition. The family claimed at the time to have bought her from a palm oil plantation worker. Desi had been fed whatever her owners had available: at times fruit but more often rice, chicken and other human food items.
She is quite habituated to humans and in our quarantine cage she is still nervous and shy and clearly needs time to adjust to her new situation. Desi is about 4-5 years old. Fortunately she seems in good health, has long beautiful hair and is eating with a good appetite. We will give her the time she needs to feel safe with us and, once she finishes her quarantine period, we will introduce her to her new friends and environment.
Desi is now thriving in the Centres large soft release area with some of the other orang-utans who are enjoying a little more freedom but still in the safety and watchful eye of the dedicated team at the centre
Ucil
Ucil, who was kept as a pet and rescued after a first unsuccessful attempt to rescue him, which was met with aggression and threats of violence by his owner. With the support of agents from the Forestry Department (BKSDA),
Ucil was initially placed with the older babies in the back transit area, where he seemed to be settling in well. After some weeks though, it became clear that he was not coping too well in the new environment and he was showing signs of depression. The past month he has been together with the younger babies in the baby school area and here he seems to be more content. He is a gentle character, but knows how to defend himself in the not so seldom play fights with Jack or Bandut. He also keeps the baby sitters busy as he is continually looking for weak spots in our fencing and breaks out.
Ucil seems to be getting along well in baby school although it is a bit of a challenge to keep him from exploring his boundaries. He requires a little extra when it comes to making sure he is mentally stimulated, and he has us all thinking of new ways to keep him busy learning skills he can apply to forest life in the future.
Ucil has graduated and is now hanging out with the older babies, which has him spending more time playing and less time trying to escape and enjoying Forest School at our Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.
