Jo's Blog / Latest News
Welcome to the official blog of Joanna Neary, where you can catch up on Jo’s bewildered world past, present and looming. Mainly, this blog consists of scanned pages from her sketchbook with a running commentary, dashed off between duties, work and other hobbies. As well as banging on about art, there’s also past gigs, and music, such as the one about being interviewed for Prog Magazine in 2019, which led to some delightful exchanges with fellow nerds. It was all very civil, even when Jo had to admit she’d got a Frank Zappa fact wrong.
Pottery inspired by Bloomsbury Group and Tony Hancock in The Rebel
Last Xmas we decided not to buy each other presents but to do a days pottery together instead. Of course I had some presents as well, I’m someone who starts looking forward to Xmas in June So I chose to do painting on pottery which our tutor hadn’t done before. He mainly runs throwing workshops. […]
Read moreCornish Bumpkin Braves London During August
All right? Apparently, according to Sheila from the Jolly Roger in Falmouth, if you want to go past Plymouth, you need to wear a bum bag under all your clothing and it’s thick fog past Bristol. Sheila went to Exeter once for half an hour and then fled back home because there was too much […]
Read moreThe Shoplifting One. Trago Mills Final Installment
Anyone who has been to Trago Mills will know that time moves differently there This is a true story Names have been changed in this one to protect the identity of my relative Two pens. But when? How? Crash zoom by a Luddite Honestly, the managers narration about where we’d been, in what order, in […]
Read moreKenny Of Falmouth
Thursday 23rd July. Harbour Lights Diary About two years ago, aged 18, I went to the British Legion Club on a Saturday night with Becky, Jerry, Jan, Shirley, Lucinda and her cousins and Kenny. Kenny’s estimated age is 76. He pretends to be a captain of the seas but rumour has it, he’s never set […]
Read moreTrago Mills Revisited
Art School Diary, Falmouth ‘The reason that it’s so easy to see what people have bought from Trago Mills is that they aren’t given free bags A plastic mat, rolled; another with 2 large Panasonic batteries. A sleeping bag and a foldaway table. A see through corrugated porch’ ‘A young boy with a tent. A […]
Read moreLet’s Away To Trago Mills
Today I started my sketchbook practice at, sensibly enough, the beginning of the day. I accidentally awoke in Meyerhold’s acclaimed ‘bent star jump’ position, the pose of choice for a variety turn. It’s as though I am constantly working, even in repose. This gets me to thinking about Art School and because I had some […]
Read moreCase of The Daunting First Page
I started a new sketchbook today so now I’ve got two on the go. The big one has my pottery designs in it, in case anyone’s interested. Pots to come. Page one of this new book is a terrible sketch but one of my favourite things – a drawing within a drawing. I used to […]
Read moreThe Kind Man Part 1, Steam Punk and A Free Torch for every reader
I was invited to do the Steam Punk Fair in Lincoln last month. On the way there, I met a kind elderly man. The two are unrelated. Or ARE they? To be continued (I lost my notebook) And unrelated, me and technology. The other day I was in the pub playing Calypso and it was […]
Read moreTrain of thought Drawings / Peaches
Travelling at 6.30am, my thoughts were flitting all over the place. I’d like to tell a story with a parallel distraction, just like a train of thought, whilst recounting past events. I expect this has been done before but not by me. These little pages are sketches for a bigger story. Perhaps with more (or […]
Read moreLiverpool and Comfort Eating
This summer I went away from my son for a whole five and a half days. I couldn’t stop eating on the day I set off for LIVERPOOL We run into a friend in town who is as obsessed with Test Match Special as my husband is. I ignore them after a while and try […]
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