Vince Jones
Below the Blue
2025
Salvaged Pine
Site 2 – Terminal Building/Short-Term Parking
Below the Blue is a 6’ tall relief sculpture carved from a piece of solid timber. Rising from a plinth, the curve and bend of the timber emulates the rolling and swelling of the ocean wind and waves, providing a natural sense of movement, as hand-carved sea creatures — kelp, squid, seaweed, crab, lobster, cod, capelin and jellyfish — swim around the full circumference. As spectators move 360 degrees around the sculpture, their eyes focus on one creature, then another and another, until they have circled the timber. As they follow the fish swimming to the surface, waves crash against the jagged rocks where a fishing stage clings to the shore on stilts. This iconic image of vernacular Newfoundland and Labrador architecture caps the piece, bringing the built environment to the natural.
About the Artist
Vince Jones, originally from Bay Roberts, NL, and now residing in Torbay, NL, is a self-taught artist and craftsperson with over 30 years' experience in hand-sculpting and chainsaw carving. Working with various species of hard and soft woods, barks, caribou, moose and deer antlers, he has been commissioned to create pieces for international dignitaries and officials. Jones’ work can be found locally in the province and in collections as far off as Germany and China. Pieces of note include a Double Wood Spirit carved from a 22’ tall piece of Hemlock in the Haliburton Highlands, ON; a Ships Figurehead on Kent Cottage in Brigus, NL, for the Landfall Trust; and Living Tree, a 20’ tall sculpture depicting wildlife of Newfoundland and Labrador, carved on-site at the grounds of Government House, commissioned by then Lieutenant Governor, her Honourable Judy Foote, in St. John’s, NL.