Born in Waterloo, Quebec, he was brought up on a farm and attended the district school where he would earn his spending money drawing pictures of dogs and other animals for the boys during his free moments. He went to Montreal where he was hired as a clerk for Morgan's and began studying painting at night schools. He studied at the Montreal Museum School of Fine Arts under the late Dr. Arthur Lismer, Gordon Weber, Jacques de Tonnancour and Elson Grier. A painter and sculptor, he became a member of the Canadian Group of Painters in 1955 and the Quebec Sculptors' Association in 1962.
In 1957 he had held a one man show of paintings and sculpture at Galerie Agnes Lefort and Robert Ayre noted this show as follows, “his constructions are a sort of metal calligraphy, delightfully airy and witty, and his pictures—there are 28 in this, his first important one-man show—are the work of a painter of discrimination. It may be a matter of personal preference, but I like his pale compositions--'Interior', 'Still Life Near a Summer Landscape', 'Island of White Shapes', 'Self-Portrait with StillLife'--better than such colourful works as 'Musician', 'Interior with Cats', 'Personnage près de la Fenêtre' and 'Nude'...He uses the human figure and the still life in the others, but the forms are better digested; the outlines are faint, the colours muted, with a good deal of white with grey and warmed with yellow. Here is refinement that makes me think of the English painter Ben Nicholson...”
In 1958 Jones participated in the first annual exhibition and sale of works by Quebec artists at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition was opened by Montreal's Mayor Fournier. Also in 1957, Jones joined the teaching staff of the Montreal Museum School of Fine Arts where he has taught painting, design, and more recently, sculpture. Jones had exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy; the Concours de Quebec; the City of Montreal; Canada House, New York; Sculpture 67 held at Toronto City Hall and is represented in the following collections: Sir George Williams University; The Bundy Art Gallery, Vermont; and many private collections.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
