I've seen the prints of Kurt Jackson's Glastonbury festival paintings several times and loved them. I guess that's not surprising as I am an unashamed Kurt Jackson fan and have been for many years.
I first saw a Kurt Jackson exhibition 16 years ago and it truly resonated with my own work at the time. The way that Jackson manages to use light to such dramatic effect. His work is often filled with complicated textures, managing to sometimes make them so dark but without ever making them heavy, it seemed like alchemy. I was drawn in immediately.
The second exhibition was on my doorstep in Worcester. I dragged my, then, four year old daughter along with me. Awesome(!) - one entire wall filled with one immense seascape. I didn't need a postcard to remember that one, its grey-blue hues and shimmering lights and scrawled lettering will forever stay with me.
Jackson really didn't have far to go to impress me as I walked up the steps into the lobby of his latest exhibition 'Place' in Bath's Victoria Art Gallery. The Glastonbury festival paintings where the first to be seen after I had shelled out my £3.50 entry fee. They where good however, if I'm honest, not as wonderful as they had looked in print(!). I feel terrible even writing that, however, that is the truth of how I felt. The larger canvases where full of his extraordinary colour and you did get the feel of vastness - there where even some great little figures to be seen. However the brush strokes were weaker, the paint was weaker in the foreground and there seemed a greater sense of having to get it right. This was not the case in his smaller Glastonbury pieces, there are some gorgeous atmospheric pieces from behind stage and done in the evenings (of Glastonbury). Less famous, perhaps less commercial, however far more Jackson for me.
'Place' is a collaboration of work between Jackson and various writers from around the country. Each writer was invited to create a piece for Jackson about their favourite place. Jackson then took their writing and went to the place to create.
Interestingly the work stretches over a number of years and it is particularly interesting, because of the long time scale, to see how Jackson plays with style. There are several pieces that harp back to days of country scenes with beautiful lights streaming through trees. However, equally you will find vast seascapes, bronzes and almost cartoon like acrylics. They all come together perfectly in the 'Place' configuration.
Many artists have tried to follow in Jacksons footsteps since. However, seeing a Jackson original up close reminds you why he can demand the price tag. There is such a versatile mixture of work matching the right strength of medium, colour, light and texture to each written piece. The artwork 'Through Brandon Woods' shows a dark melancholy, fearful remembrance 'loss and longing' as the writer, Catherine Layshon, says. Jackson's dark umber, greens and reds conjure the scene so well with layer upon layer of fine textured brambles.
Not in the exhibition, however in the accompanying book, are further studies to go with Catherine Leyshon's writing. They consist of a beautiful, delicate, almost lifelike, bronze bramble and an intricate light handed acrylic study of blackberries. Jackson shows off his versatility in every way possible in this exhibition - he has metaphorically run in every direction and succeeded.
By comparison to the dark melancholy of 'Through Brandon Woods' is the vast seascape of 'Broomway - the most dangerous footpath in Britain'. It's just one of several of Jackson's famous seascapes featured in the exhibition, but it's the one I fell in love with. I got up close and personal with this one, nose to canvas to see exactly how each and every brush stroke moved. By observing the works you admire, you learn so much and I envy the way Jackson captures the light so precisely every time on his paintings. It does make me wonder if he has a stack at home that went wrong!?
There are so many others I could rave about - a beautiful bronze flower in a Coke can, some colourful harbour scenes, even a car chase! It's a less frenetic Jackson we see in this exhibition than I saw in the last. Perhaps an older and wiser Jackson.
One thing that has not changed is his wonderful exuberant immediacy, Jackson's creativity moves to reflect when he feels moved and that is the magic of the man. With it appears total freedom and he expresses his responses on canvas as if it were a language of colour and light.
I could, of course, be biased due to my love for him. If you wish to judge for yourself then visit the Kurt Jackson 'Place' exhibition in Bath. Follow the link HERE to find out more.
Written by Becky Newell
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