JAGO STONE - THE AMERICAN CONNECTION - PART TEN

As I have done before, this post is using material first seen in my monthly Mailchimp Newsletter about the Jago Stone research and biography. Here, the images and text come from the Newsletter for November, published on November 1 - and again, my apologies if you are familiar with the images and stories but for many readers, particularly those across the Pond, this will be a first-time read.

  If you know anyone you think might be interested in these mailings about 'Jago' do encourage them to follow the link to my website. Here it is: http://www.robdonovan-author.co.uk/JagoStone-Biography.html

You can also use this page to access my Jago Stone blogs.

Copies of 'The Road to Corbyn' can be purchased at a discount using this link: http://www.robdonovan-author.co.uk/TheRoadToCorbyn.html

In this edition, first the good news about publication. Last month, Ian Strathcarron of Unicorn Press and I signed a contract to publish 'The Remarkable Life of Jago Stone' (the new working title) in the autumn of 2019. A long road to get to this point but once Ian had read my submission email in mid-August and decided to follow his publisher's sense that this was worth following up, it's been a bit of a speedway. The final edit was in the second half of November and we are now at the design stage. The pre-press agreement is scheduled for June. The provisional date for publication is September 2019. Busy days ahead - this is a publishing and marketing partnership!

And as the publication trail got hotter, the American Connection links cooled - until early November. Here is the story of what then came my way from across the Pond through cyberspace in the shape of Facebook:

First, Carol Baker left these messages on my repost of 'Jago Stone - The American Connection - Part Seven' using the USAF veteran's webpage, RAF Upper Heyford Brats and Friends:

'From Washington look what I found on my mom's living room … We lived in England 74-78 in Sherington.'  Accompanying the text were these two images:

Banbury Cross, Oxfordshire - Jago Stone water-colour - 1978

How exciting to have two more images to add to the collection - and Jago paintings from 1978 have been thin on

 the ground. 

Cottages at Wroxton St Mary - Jago Stone water-colour - 1978 

A day or two later, the commentary at the bottom of the reposted American Connection - Part Seven was further enriched by this message from Dianna DAiello:

'My dad has 2 pictures from Jago Stone, one has my name in it. He painted them in our living room. I remember that he was a very interesting man. I will send pictures to you today, I'm at my dad's now.'

And there they were. Two magnificent Jago Stone palette-knife paintings from 1976, the same year that Jago painted the palette-knife now in the collection of Keith and Joan Goodenough in Virginia - see my two palette-knife blog-posts on my website, using these links: 

robdonovan.blogspot.com/2018/03/jago-stone-prize-winning-palette-knife.html

robdonovan.blogspot.com/2018/04/jago-stone-prize-winning-palette-knife.html

As Jessica Raber, the American artist who appeared in a Jago painting aged 5, commented yesterday when she saw these images: 'Wow! Cool palette knife pieces!'

I am blown away by being gifted these images and seeing yet more of Jago at his 'post-prison expressionist' best. 

I obviously hope for more detail and stories and sharper images - but I am so grateful for what I have got - and the opportunity I now have to share this find with you, my Mailchimp readers.'

And now - in this post recycled for Upper Heyford and Croughton USAF veterans and their families  - more can savour these discoveries. If you have memories of Jago or images of his artwork and would like to pass them on to me, I would love to hear - and with your permission - share. The life and achievements of this remarkable artist are worth preserving.