jo blakely gallery - JO BLAKELY

My current work is exploring ideas around climate change, borders and the changes climate change is making, migrations, emergency, and navigating it all while caring for the earth and life.

Woman wearing emergency blanket in front of Portolan style map.

A Sense of Direction, 2024 Oil on Board, 25cm. sq.

White woman with long dark hair, looking annoyed, arms crossed, wearing a gold emergency blanket like a robe. Behind her is a large globe map of both hemispheres with a large compass rose in gold behind her head like a halo or crown.

Navigating, 2024 Oil on Masonite 18 x 24”

A woman wearing an emergency blanket and a gold chain with an engraved compass design on it, behind a part of a round globe map

My Heart is my Compass, 2024 Oil on Board, 9.8”sq.

A woman seem close up with dark hair that merges into what looks like fabric of space, a night sky of sparkling stars, she is wearing an emergency blanket, sitting hunched over with one arm wrapped around the earth, chin resting on earth, looking pensively and protective of the earth, eyes slightly down.

Gravity, 2024 Oil on Board, 10” sq.

Windrose, 2024 Oil on Board, 10x10”

A woman Sean with emergency blanket held around her shoulders with one hand, behind is colorful Kilim with various symbols, birds & an upward arrow most noticeable.

Nomad, 2024 Oil on Canvas

Painting of an Asian woman short dark hair, wearing a grey party dress, hands in lap, seated on a bench with red Persian rug and Chinese pillows. Behind is a grey drop cloth, which has caught on fire in places.

Smokescreen (inspired by a pastel piece by Judy Drew) Oil on Paper, 9x12", 2022

Emergent, Oil on Board 9.5” tondo, 2023

Bird of Paradise - Glade Oil on Canvas 24 x 30” 2024

Still life painting of various objects including a gold mannequin hand in a fist, an hourglass with gold sand, a pile of 3 books, a pale ochre color kn95 mask, and a shoe/foot shaped object covered with milagros charms and a small vase filled with fresh white lilacs. A light neutral curtain shape, with a dark blue background revealed.

Milagros, 2024 Oil on Masonite, 8 x 10”

Ebisu painted as a woman wesring a lot of symbolic fashion, including a boro skirt and the goggles and white headwrap of Ama pearl divers, sitting in a boat surrounded by fish. Flags move behind her

Ebisu - Shichifukujin series. Oil on Canvas, 36x48, 2021 Available

Beautiful young Native woman wearing ribbon skirt holding an infant in one arm, a basket of corn in the other, standing in a cornfield looking direct. Colors are bright with a lot of green.

Winona & Child in the Cornfields, Oil on Canvas 22x28", 2022 Available. Profits go to Winona to help in her studies. She is Kiikaapoa, Bear Clan and a community activist.

A male figure from Peking opera wearing a false beard and headdress with turquoise dragon & phoenix, and shou symbol, along with red Pom poms and pearls, and beaded tassels, and pheasant tail feathers.

Painting of daomadan (female warrior) from Peking Opera. She is looking side eyed and sneering.

Daomadan - Oil on Canvas Paper, 12 x 16, 2021

A picture of two lovers with short dark hair one wearing a white sweater, the other a white t-shirt in a passionate embrace and kissing. We don’t see much of their faces.

Lovers, 2024 Oil on Watercolor Paper 8 x 10”

Lower tangled trunk of a tree with sunlit white bark, showing many branches and at the base, tangled up among the trunk branches is yellow caution tape.

Caution Tape, 2023 Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36”

Portrait of an androgynous person, head tilted, eyes to the side, looking at something we can't see. Colors are black, greys, greens, blue and a pop of yellow, and skin tone is warm.

The Regard, Oil on Masonite 9x12” 2023, (Sold)

A woman wearing a silvery grey scarf knotted to the side, a colorful pink green, grey and white top, painted loosely, and very large beads around her neck. She is sitting on a suggestion of a patterned banquet which divides the background, and above is floral paper. Overall the painting is very patterned and busy, but her face is quiet and peaceful looking, she has very rosy cheeks and long dark hair we see under the scarf a bit on one side.

Seer Oil on Masonite, 9x12, 2023 (Sold)

Woman peeking coyly behind collar of a big black coat, loosely painted suggestions of koi fish and a gold waterfall on the coat.

Koi, Suiseki Series Digital Painting.

Back view of curvy dark skinned woman standing nude in water, to bum, hip jutted out, hair blowing in wind, gold necklace stream trails along her back.

Wind & Water-Suiseki Series. Digital Painting.

The Gold Between, Suiseki Series Digital Painting.