April Jones worked for a long time at Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency in Fitzroy Crossing, painting on canvas. She then moved to Port Hedland and Broome to teach language at TAFE, then back to Fitzroy Crossing to teach at Karrayili Adult Education Centre. In 2007 she came to Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre Art Therapy Studio to learn to sew. Seven years later she began working with Marnin Studio, creating block and screen prints of local bush tucker, flora and fauna.

April Jones has two designs in our Fitzroy Crossing Collection: River Stones and Rainbows. River Stones combines three natural elements local to the Fitzroy River area. It depicts the leaves of a gumtree with big nuts found on the Kimberley coast. April says, “The nuts come out at the end of Moonggoowarla (Gooniyandi), our cold weather time”. The circles in the background of the design are small stones found in the sand of the riverbed, and the small, elongated shapes represent flat pointy stones. Rainbows celebrates the advent of the dry season, depicting the colourful arcs seen in the sky towards the end of the wet season.