CHINA CLAY a vibrant painting of a Devon scene is a recent addition to the Permanant Art Collection at The Box and can be seen on display throughout 2023 in the 'PEOPLE AND PLACE: ART COLLECTION SHOWCASE' EXHIBITION.
Jean Jones was born in London in 1927 and had a deep connection with the South West throughout her life. Her family holidayed in the South Hams and then lived in Bideford after their home was damaged during a Second World War bombing raid.
Jones spent a year at St Martin’s School of Art but then switched to Girton College, Cambridge to read English. She did not return to painting for many years.
She married in 1949. Her in-laws lived in Devon so she and her husband John spent a great deal of time in the area before buying a property of their own in Shaugh Prior on the edge of Dartmoor.
John was an academic and it’s often said that Devon provided Jones with an escape from the intensity of academic life (their friends included novelists J. R. R. Tolkien, William Golding and Iris Murdoch). It also provided some relief from the anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder she experienced throughout her life.
