Rough Crossing an acrylic painting by Jean Craig. The art measures 24″ x 30″ and the frame is 29 1/2″ x 35 1/2″ Biography: Noted Hampton painter Jean Craig, who delighted and influenced several generations of Peninsula artists and collectors through her life and work, died in Richmond Thursday at 95. For more than 50 years, she and her husband — the late Allan Jones — ranked among the best-known couples in the region's art world, not only exhibiting their award-winning paintings widely but also conducting popular classes for children at Robert Sugden Elementary School and in their Olde Wythe home. They also set a widely admired example for the life of ideas, art and music they shared with countless friends and guests at the dinners, dances and performances they staged in their large living room. "When I think of that generation of artists, Jean — along with Allan, Jack Clifton and Barclay Sheaks, who was just a little younger than the others — always stand outs as part of the 'Big Four,'" said Hampton artist James Warwick Jones, head of the Charles H. Taylor Arts Center. "They were the ones who showed you could make a living as an artist — and they became role models for me and many other Peninsula artists." Raised in Philadelphia, Craig was a roller-skating, bike-riding tomboy before — at age 15 — she discovered a lifelong love of art. From the beginning, she wanted to make art her profession, she told the Daily Press in a 2008 interview. And her early successes led her to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she won its coveted Ramborger Prize and well as scholarships to travel and study in Mexico and Guatemala. Craig married fellow art student Jones in 1942 and moved to his hometown of Hampton, where the couple first lived in a converted chicken coop. Their second home was a large old house on Claremont Avenue, where they had space for both studios and private art classes as well as flower and vegetable gardens. Flowers, vegetables, children and pets soon became frequent subjects in her paintings — as did the dining room and porch. "She had a sort of Impressionist style and a nice emotional component to all her work," says Jones, whose 2008 retrospective of the couple's work ranks among the center's most popular exhibits. "Gardens, flowers, children, animals and her home — they were all things she cared about a lot — and she turned them into some wonderful paintings." Among Craig's other admirers are long-time friends and neighbors John and Elizabeth Urquhart, who got their first work from the artist as a wedding present. Over 30 years, the couple bought a dozen of her paintings, including a still life originally seen as it was being started on Craig's easel. "We still have that painting today," John Urquhart said. "Jean was very impressive, talented woman — but also very down to earth. And she never made us feel any lesser because we weren't artists." Nearly 250 friends, former students and admirers showed up to see Craig at the opening of the 2008 retrospective, which featured more than 125 paintings and drawings. Among the crowd were many collectors who had loaned works to the exhibit. "That was one of the impressive things about mounting that show," said Jones, who is no relation. "Every where I went, there were people who owned their paintings." Despite her advancing age and vision problems, Craig continued to make art — even after moving into a Richmond home for the elderly two years ago. Several of her colorful paper cut-outs were featured in the Hampton show. "She was an artist through and through — 100 percent — and up until about three weeks ago she was still thinking about the next piece of art she wanted to do," her daughter Bronwyn Jones said Friday. "When she stopped, it was a good indicator that she was ready to go."
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