Newburyport City Clerk Richard Jones, as most natives know, is more than he seems.
But some people going to the Clerk’s office to get a marriage license, or probably more frequently to pay a parking ticket, may not realize he’s also a lifelong resident of the city, is married with three daughters and is also a lawyer and an artist.
Jones walked the long and winding road to his current position, a return to a City Hall in which he served as city solicitor from 1978 to 1986. But, he explained, as City Clerk, he needs to have an expanded viewpoint. The one in which he is not a Townie, not an Irish-American – but a Newburyporter and an American.
Specializing in historic paintings for the last dozen or so years, he describes his works as “crow’s nest views of New England towns.” How does he do it? He uses a hang glider and sketch pad, “which isn’t easy “ – he jokes.
He is currently working on two concepts. 1). A view of Newburyport from the steeple of Old South Church to the water. 2). A view up Green Street. The latter would include the lost-to-fire steeple on the Immaculate Conception church, the old courthouse on Bartlet Mall, The Kelley School, the Old Hill Burying Ground and out to the railroad tracks.
A painting he made of Newburyport, which depicts downtown from Pleasant Street to the river around 1850, hangs in the mayor’s office. Last year it was on the cover of the Yankee Homecoming program. The painting was “sold through a gallery,” to a local resident, but when the man who bought it moved out of town, he donated the piece to the city.
One day Mayor John Moak (Jones’ predecessor as city clerk) came into the clerk’s office to tell Jones that he would not believe what the city had just received … and just like that, his painting was back in his proximity.
