Myrtle Jones, an accomplished artist, is closely associated with Savannah, her home for most of her adult life. 

Born in Forsyth County, Georgia, she grew up in Winder, Georgia, and worked as a hairdresser before moving to Savannah in 1943. She first took up painting in 1950, when she studied at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences with Emil Holzhauer. Despite her training, she considered herself to be primarily self-taught. In 1964 she purchased a house on Gaston Street in Savannah’s historic district and used it as her home and studio for the rest of her long life. 

Jones’s work is admired for the distinct balance she achieved between modern and more formalist approaches to her subjects. During the 1950s and early 1960s—a time she characterized as her “dark and bold period”—she utilized strong colors, heavy brushstrokes, and distinct lines. 

Myrtle Jones, Untitled (shrimp boat), undated. Watercolor on paper. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia. Gift of Dr. Lloyd B. Schnuck, Jr., in memory of Barbara A. Schnuck.

in her portraits. Later, she gravitated toward something more ethereal, employing a lighter palette that created a “faded” effect that was uniquely her own. 

Throughout her long career, Jones sought to capture the everyday life of Savannah through a range of subjects that included insightful portraits, cheerfully populated streetscapes, and images of the city’s nineteenth-century architecture. Remarkably prolific, she is thought to have created thousands of works of art. 

The works in the present exhibition were donated to the Morris by one of the museum’s staunchest patrons, Dr. Lloyd B. Schnuck, in memory of his wife, Barbara.