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Artist Festina Lente

Introducing Artist Anna ‘Festina Lente’ Jones

Bio

“You do not need anyone’s permission to lead a creative life” Elizabeth Gilbert. Big Magic “Living beyond fear’

In 2003 she retired, for the first time, after selling her business The Framing Centre and Gallery, Hyde Park, Plymouth and sailed past the breakwater for new adventures. After sailing for 5 years, exploring the coasts of Europe and the Adriatic she finally bought a house in Corfu which she then spent 5 years renovating. It was during her time sailing that she sought out a new form of creativity, as working in stained glass was not practical on the high seas. She started exploring texturing on fabric and began to combine unusual elements such as shells, glass and flotsam within her intricate designs. Her inspiration gathered from the complex beauty to be found in the sea around her and of the magic of nature. In 2013 she opened a specialist boutique on the island of Paxos where again, she found her inspiration in the Island’s stunning nature. Sadly in 2016 her world was shattered by the unexpected break up of her long-term marriage. Returning to Corfu she started to explore within her art the project of “Finding Anna.” To begin with the process was very dark but slowly by combining hand cut slivers of glass and mirror, particularly in the Series ‘Shattered” the light started to come back. Whilst in Corfu she had a couple of successful Exhibitions and several commissions including a 2 meter garden table of wisteria in stained glass. “Breaking Waves,” ( 2 mtrs. x 1.2 mts.) combing ceramics, manipulated fabrics hand ground glass and complex paints and silver leaf. “Driftwood and Beyond” and her personal favourite ‘Halcyon’ multi laying stained glass and alcohol ink treated glass and her trademark for incorporating gold, silver, and various coloured metal leaves to capture the very moment a Kingfisher enters the water. She returned to UK in 2024 and now can spend more time concentrating on exploring her art and continuing to learn new ways to combine unexpected materials. She is presently working on a large commission of “The Four Seasons” for a client in Luxembourg. The name Festina Lente was adopted after a dear friend gave me some wonderful advice back in 2016 he said “Festina Lente” and for non Latin experts amongst us it means “Make Haste Slowly” very apt at that time and as many of my pieces take hundreds of hours of work.

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