Miss Wiscasset Diner patrons may notice some familiar images on the walls: a lighthouse on a craggy shore, scenes of nature and portraits. However, these are not the department store posters in plastic frames one sees at many roadside eateries.

Instead, they are original watercolors and oil paintings created by local artist Tom Jones. Each of these original paintings are framed on heavy mat board by Fogg Art restoration in Wiscasset.

Jones twists the familiar in scenes flooded with life, color and light.

Cary Grant sports a solemn smile from his place on one wall. Opposite is the watercolor painting of a lighthouse, towering above swaying palms and a scattered militia over a windswept beach. Fighter planes soar through a battered, bruised sky.  Portraits of animals and people gaze out with looks of joy, tinged with sorrow.

“I like to paint almost anything,” Jones said. He also includes political conflict in some of his art.

He rubbed his eyes, then stared back, pausing as he thought of which artists have influenced his work.“It's hard for to me to think sometimes,” Jones said. “I'm not a historian of the arts, but I do see pictures that I like.”

Cary Grant aside, Jones has painted the portraits of teachers and friends, family pets and local scenes, in addition to the images he pulls from his imagination.

“I like to represent people, places and things that are under-appreciated,” Jones said. “Artists tend to shake things up a bit. Art can be so powerful.”

Jones started painting and drawing early on. At age 6, he impressed a nurse with his drawing of a fish. He started experimenting with acrylics and water color in high school, under the tutelage of art teacher Tom Block.

Jones said Block taught him the power of simplicity in art.

He graduated Wiscasset High School in 1996 and continued to study art at the University of Maine at Augusta. Then for a brief period he studied under Damariscotta artist Jan Kilburn.

Among his most recent works are portraits of musician Paul McCartney performing live in the 1970s and the dogs of Sprague's Lobster shack owner, Frank Sprague. Jones said he also painted a mural of the old wrecked schooners Hesper and Luther Little that for years lay along Wiscasset's shorefront.

Like the schooners, the mural is gone; Jones said he was commissioned to paint the mural, but it has since been covered over.  

To capture his artwork before they slip away into history, visit the Miss Wiscasset Diner on Route 1. Patrons can enjoy a decent meal and may appreciate the local artwork.