Jones earned his Master of Fine Arts in 1962 from the University of Utah, where he studied with Alvin Gittins. He also attended the Art Students League of New York. His early works of expressionistic figures gave way in the later 1960s to landscape paintings. The time that he spent studying privately with LeConte Stewart had a significant impact on his landscape style. Jones's paintings are "not overly political", wrote Will South, but "indirectly, they are . . . He does not shy away from painting the encroachment of the city . . . refineries, bridges, and telephone wire that are all around us." In reference to his work, Jones considers that "in regard to the rural west, I'm just one step ahead of the developer, but I can feel his hot breath on my back and hear his bulldozer gaining on me. Got to hurry." Jones skillfully executes broad wilderness vistas, and his rural scenes are rendered with an intellectual approach to design, form and color.
