JAGO STONE - THE AMERICAN CONNECTION - PART SIXTEEN

In this blogpost I am sharing the material from the August edition of my Mailchimp Jago newsletter. If you have already seen this, I hope you enjoy refreshing a memory - and there is something new to savour: an image of the Amazon order page for 'The Remarkable Life of Jago Stone' where the book is available for a pre-publication order at £20. Personally, I would take advantage of the pre-publication order at £15 on the Unicorn PG website - Unicorn is my publisher. If you are interested, press here for the link.  

www.unicornpublishing.org/page/detail/The-Remarkable-Life-of-Jago-Stone/?K=9781912690428

AUGUST 2019 - UPDATES ON 'THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF JAGO STONE' - THE BIOGRAPHY

The biography is still waiting in a queue at Unicorn for final edits but the marketing team led by Louise Campbell has been in touch and various avenues are being explored. More on that next month. In this post, I will focus again on yet more Jago discoveries that came to me through cyberspace this past week.  


 The publication date is October 1, 2019

If you know anyone you think might be interested in these mailings about 'Jago' please encourage them to follow the link to my website. Here it is: http://www.robdonovan-author.co.uk/JagoStone-Biography.html They can join you as subscribers - 64 to date. Thank you, Suzannah, for adding your name to the list of subscribers.

You can also use this page to access all my Jago Stone blogs. The blog-posts are also there for your enjoyment - and comments. Press this link here to start accessing these posts:  https://robdonovan.blogspot.com/2019/01/jago-stone-american-connection-part.html

First, a solution to last month's puzzle:
Where was the location of 'The Fox and Hounds' - Jago Stone (1978)?

Tantalisingly, the location of this particular Fox and Hounds remained unclear and so I made my plea for help. 
Trevor Jones, a Jago fan here in the UK who has been helpful before, came up trumps on 25th July when he emailed me with a google link, advising: 'Try this one, Rob'.  I did and it is
indeed the Fox and Hounds on the Main Road, Ardley, Bicester, OX27 7PE. The M40 now sweeps past a short distance away - and as Trevor points out the pub is around three miles from the Upper Heyford USAF base. Google the Fox and Hounds at Ardley, Bicester for an image of the pub today - and compare with Jago's depiction in 1978.
This week, I received an email from Suzanne Fuhrmeister and her mother, Pat Petty, in the USA complete with photos of the seven Jago paintings in their collection. I was thrilled. She explained that they did not have a professional photographer to do the job but was prepared to remove them from the glass and retake them if I needed better images. I have responded that these images are good enough for my blogpost needs at present - best leave them undisturbed unless the images are needed for publishing in a book. 
All seven images, I reveal to you now - with some commentary about how the connection was made that led to these examples of Jago's art winging their way through cyberspace to my computer.  




1 - Castle Coombe Wiltshire - England's Prettiest Village - Jago Stone (1975)
The story of the connection begins with the email I received in February 2018 from Jenny Janzen in Virginia. She told me of the collection of 16 Jago paintings that she and her husband had in their home. Jenny sent me a list of all these works and I have included that catalogue in 'The Remarkable Life of Jago Stone'. However, technical problems meant I did not see the images of these paintings until  a week before Christmas, last year. Kristie Moore of Moore Archives & Preservation LLC had been given the task of photographing the collection - and I was a lucky beneficiary! 
The full story of the Janzen connection with Jago Stone is told in the biography - press this link here for my blogpost version published on 23 December 2018.



2 - Cottages and Church at Welford on Avon - Jago Stone (1975)
Then, last month, I got a letter - a real letter! - from Jenny Janzen explaining that she was moving from Virginia to an address in New York. Evidently, her husband had passed away; she wrote:
'My late husband was stationed at Croughton in the mid 70s.'
Jenny continued:
'Another Air Force friend was also stationed there at the same time. His name was Bob Petty. His wife, Pat and my husband's [late] wife Norma were good friends. Both Jago fans.
…. I found when visiting Pat and her daughter Suzanne Fuhrmeister that they have several Jago's as well. You might want to contact Suzanne for copies of more pictures'.



3  - The Banbury Cross Banbury, Oxfordshire  - Jago Stone (1975)
How cool was that! Jenny had given me Suzanne's email address and very soon Suzanne and I were in contact. The images of the seven Jago watercolours arrived in my inbox last Wednesday.



4 - Branscombe Devon - Jago Stone - (Undated)
I am delighted to be able to share the Fuhrmeister-Petty collection with you and I thank them both for making this possible and giving their permissions for my telling of this story. And I thank Jenny Janzen again for her part in all this.  



5 - The Bird Cage Inn Specially Painted for Pat and Bob Petty (1975) - Jago Stone (1975)
Please keep the stories and the images of the artwork coming!


6 - Long Crendon Buckinghamshire Specially Painted for Pat and Bob Petty - Jago Stone (1975)


Jago Stone was a remarkable artist -and so prolific.



7  'An old English Country Cottage - Warwickshire' - Jago Stone (1976) 
I know from the words in his autobiography that Jago loved the thought that he was now an international artist with so many USAF contacts taking his paintings back with them across the Pond. He would, I feel, be tickled pink to know that so many images of his artwork have travelled back across the Atlantic through cyberspace - and then been transmitted into the realms of the world-wide web.
We live in extraordinary times.   

                                                   ---------------------------------------



I promised you the image of the Amazon page for 'The Remarkable Life of Jago Stone'. Here it is:

I hope you have enjoyed this journey back into the 1970s and the life and times of Jago Stone - Croughton and Pat and Bob Petty and their daughter Suzanne - Bob and Norma Janzen and Bob's second wife, Jenny Janzen. Extraordinary connections. My privilege to be part of all this.