About

Joanna Jones

Joanna Jones makes paintings with her belly, like a snail leaving a trail, she works in her attic studio with the roof on her back.

Her works are ethereal layers of opaque and translucent colour applied to cloth like swathes of ectoplasm, the viscous substance that exudes from the body of a medium when manifesting spirits. Her compositions slide through different states of matter: from the mineral (steel), to the bodily (blood) through to the aqueous (water, vapour, cloud).

Jones first came to Dover in the late 1940s, travelling with her mother to its shoreline from where they continued their journey to holiday in the south of France. Her mother’s energy lightened when they reached Dover, and the town has since symbolised the gateway to Joanna’s “other world”. She returned in 1997, making a nest for herself in the clouds above the port.

Ever since, she has used egg tempera as her medium, in patterns that spool and marble like an omelette gently lifting against the edges of a pan. Pigment is mixed into the yolk and applied to canvas directly with her skin. Her compositions are created through touch, not sight: after giving birth to her own daughter in 1973 she knew she wanted to physically feel what she was creating.

With the remaining egg whites, Joanna typically makes tuiles aux amandes, biscuits shaped liked miniature roof tiles that she curves on the back of a broomstick – the same broom she uses to sweep her studio after the work is done.

Nicolas Deshayes – artist curator – taken from his exhibition text for the Shocked into Presence exhibition he curated of Joanna Jones’ pantings at the Citadel in Dover in 2023

Life as a collaborative event

As a child in the south of France, I saw artists live in different ways, trade their art in different ways and create ways of living outside the conventions of the time. This has inspired my life practice.

Outer and inner landscape. The two interconnected ambitions of care and connection have shaped my practice over 50 years. They are rooted in the solitary act of painting in my studio and also realised through collaborative socially engaged projects connecting artists and communities.

In 1966, while still at the Byam Shaw School, I was a founding member of Peter Kennards co-operative gallery Zeez Arts. Then soon after graduating from the RA Schools in 1973 founded ‘the Works’, with Bryn Jones, a studio collective of 30 artists, astrologers, alternative health practioners and designers in the old Dimsdale radiator factory at Fulham Cross. In the 1980’s I was part of  The Fragile Theatre Company in Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany where I brought paint into the productions, not as part of the sets but as an element that was integrated into the theatre pieces themselves. Similarly in the us3studios, video collaborations with Helen Lindon and Clare Smith, painting and drawing are active elements in all 3 productions. I founded the Pükler Salon in Berlin in 1994 and in 2006 Dover Arts Development (DAD) with artist Clare Smith.  In 2026 together with Rachel Sale of F.A.T. Studios Inc we launched the Dover Residency programme in my home. Also in my home is the Dover Urban Room, part of the National Urban room network, more about that project here : A place for the Salon in Urbanism 

In Dover the connection to the landmass of Europe is tangible, with the French coast clearly in view. In every century this small town of Dover never really disappeared from national or global news. It’s a brand, it’s political, it’s the closest place to the mainland that Britain split off from, when the chalk bridge collapsed 450,000 years ago. And it is where I am living since 1997. Dover is not simply where I live, with its secrets and resistance, it has become an active collaborator in my practice.

My painting practice explores memory through touch. Through movement, tension, recognition and release, I create works that transform embodied memory into image. Whether through painting or socially engaged practice, my practice finds ways for creativity to release energy, make connection and generate transformation.

Dover Arts Development (DAD) is an artist-led porous collaborative framework that advocates for & actively pursues a strategic role for the arts and for the benefits artists can bring to placemaking.

DAD has delivered 47 funded projects, brought in approx £1.5m of funding into Dover and has a track record of working with residents, schools and the local community. DAD has worked with over 200 international, national and local artists and continues to build its family of artists and cement its networks. ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND has praised DAD for its curatorial approach and commitment to developing local talent.

Its partners include:

Dover Arts Development (DAD), are forerunners in encouraging a more integrated and sustainable approach with artists engaging with the environment and new communities.

For more about  DAD and a full Portfolio of  projects click here 

Joanna Jones is represented by:

Galerie Gilla Lörcher
Contemporary Art