Jonathan Gibbs took the Cheltenham Painting Fellowship in 1978 and has been an art college lecturer since that time. He taught at the Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology, Bath College of Higher Education, and the University of Middlesex as a part-time lecturer until 1990, at which time he was appointed to lecture at Edinburgh College of Art. Gibbs was Programme Director of Illustration, Edinburgh College of Art School of Design up until his recent retirement.
Gibbs work has been selected for the John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool, the Royal Academy, London, the Hayward Gallery, London, Royal Scottish Academy and the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. He has contributed to many group exhibitions in the UK. Gibbs has illustrated the Collected Poems of Robert Frost for the Folio Society, London, and has made additional book designs and illustrations for Faber & Faber, Penguin, Picador and Random House. His works have been purchased by the UK Government Art Collection; the Arts Council of Great Britain; the Scottish Arts Council, Leicestershire, Suffolk, Loudoun and Kilmarnock Councils; and private collections in the UK, USA, Singapore and Hong Kong.