JAGO STONE ONLINE - IN THE SALESROOM AND THE STUDIO

Every month since August this year, I have produced a Mailchimp Newsletter for those who are interested in the Jago Stone story. The Newsletter is free - to get your copy, all you need to do is complete the simple form on this page - press here for the link. There are around fifty subscribers at present. I make sure there is novel material in the Newsletter that has not appeared before in my blogs.

Incidentally, when you look at the link you have just pressed, you will see that there are now twenty published Jago posts that I've written since January 2016, including the four American Connection blogs that have now been reissued through the websites of USAF Upper Heyford veterans. The first three of these four posts have gathered nearly 2,000 more views in the last three weeks. Jago was commissioned to paint pictures by scores of the American flying crew on tour over here - and these guys and their families took his work back across the Pond to hang in their own homes.

In the course of this blog, I would like to share with you the fruits of one of the 'gifts' that has come to me online. About three months ago, I got an email from Google informing me that there was an online auction coming up in which one of the Lots included paintings by Jago Stone. Apparently, at some point in the past, I has pressed a key to indicate that I wanted to be alerted if such a development occurred. I've never taken part in an auction before online - in fact, my first auction experience had been in Penzance earlier this year - see this blog here  - when I bid for the Jane Sand and Claire Healey paintings that now grace our walls. It proved to be an interesting experience. Here is one of the four fruits that came my way.

The School House of Piddletrenthide , Dorset - Jago Stone (1983)

I was told online that I could enter a bid in advance for the Lot 419 in which I now knew there were four Jago paintings and three other items. I had no further information about the nature of the other items, nor any details nor pictures of the Jago paintings. I was too busy to attempt to find out any


more and simply put in an advance bid of £100 - and promptly got on with my writing for the biography. I even forgot to go online on the day of the auction.

Tudor Cottage with the Village pump of Souldern, Oxfordshire - Jago Stone (1983)

The day after the sale, I got the email telling me that I had successfully bought the Lot for £65. Not quite the excitement of the live auction but still pretty cool. The problem now facing me was how to get Lot 419 from Banbury in Oxfordshire to St Ives in Cornwall. The auctioneers provide details of packing and courier services and within a fortnight - at the grand cost of another £90 - I was unpacking Lot 419 in our Cornish home.

Bridge Farm House,

Leigh, Dorset - Jago Stone (1983)

I had acquired these four fine Jago Stone paintings from his late period for less than £40 a picture - and the British Heart Foundation shop down in St Ives got the other three unwanted paintings not painted by Jago.

Number Three, The High Street, Piddlehinton, Dorset - Jago Stone (1983)

All in all, a rather pleasing venture into the online salesroom.

And so from the auction room to the recording studio. A couple of months ago, Steve McIntosh, my web-designer and all-round adviser in this online world, suggested that we make a video in which I talked about Jago and the biography I was writing. We made the first short tape three weeks ago and it now has over 800 views. Here it is.

We made the second one on Tuesday this week. It's beginning to attract the views on Facebook and YouTube. Here you have it.




I hope you have found them interesting. Do sign up for the Newsletter, if you have not already - and remember, if you are looking for that Christmas present stocking filler, my first book fits the bill perfectly. Here's a link to my publisher's website where you can get a good discount - press here. Thank you!