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Artist Joanna Brendon in conversation with Nirjay Mahindru.  Joanna Brendon is probably best known for being the first Director of the concert hall, St John’s Smith Square (https://www.sjss.org.uk). Throughout her career, she has been involved with funding for the arts, working with the Royal Opera House, Royal Academy of Dancing, the Spanish Arts Festival and Sadler’s Wells.

In 2005, she gained a MA at Brighton University, her thesis being “Do Visual Artists Need To See? – Exploring Alternative Perceptions” as a way of confronting her own diminishing sight prior to a life-changing operation. Two prints from her Sightlines series are in the V&A Print Collection. The thesis can be found online.

She has been Artist in Residence at Brantwood, John Ruskin’s home in the Lake District, where she had a solo exhibition. In 2011, she had an exhibition at the Holywell Music Room, to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Oxford Lieder Festival, and in 2013, she had a show at The Orange Tree Theatre.  Her work is represented in private collections in Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. She lives and works in London where she regularly exhibits and holds
open studios.

For ten years Joanna was Chair of Artists at Home. She is still closely involved,
but has stepped back since developing an auto-immune disease.  “With a landscape subject matter that is often intensely familiar to her, Joanna Brendon’s bold, abstracting way of working creates paintings rich in dramatic feeling and entirely mysterious in character”
Nicholas Usherwood

It was through art that Joanna met the founder of InterAct Stroke Support, Caroline Smith, and she has been a committed supporter from the outset.
If you would like to join her mailing list, please write to her at
email: [email protected]
website: www.joannabrendon.com 

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