Kurt Jackson: interview

Kurt Jackson, one of Britain's most celebrated landscape painters, talks to Studio International about the inspiration he finds in Cape Cornwall, near St Just – the most westerly town in England.

St Just, Cornwall, 17 January 2014

Interview by NICOLA HOMER
Filmed by MARTIN KENNEDY

A keen environmentalist, Jackson has worked with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Humanitarian and ecological concerns have shaped his artistic practice for more than 20 years, whether narrating the lives of fishermen, collaborating with a hospital surgeon, capturing the light and colour of the River Thames, or travelling to a remote part of Scotland to paint a writer’s house.

The view from Kurt Jackson's fisherman's hut studio, Priest Cove, Cape Cornwall, 17 January 2014. Photograph: Martin Kennedy.

Priest Cove, situated on the wild Atlantic coast, is where Jackson has created a key sequence of seascapes, and the place he selects to discuss the connection between his art and the community. Inland, he presents a future project space, talks about his favourite sculptures and opens the door to his studio, where he tells the stories behind his current paintings.

Kurt Jackson in his St Just studio, with a painting of a dead fox, 2014. Photograph: Martin Kennedy.

Kurt Jackson in his St Just studio, 2014 with All that's left, 1997/2003. Photograph: Martin Kennedy.

Exterior of the building that will house the Jackson Foundation, St Just, Cornwall, 2014. Photograph: Martin Kennedy.

Kurt Jackson inside the building that will house the Jackson Foundation, St Just, Cornwall, 2014. Photograph: Martin Kennedy.

Kurt Jackson with No Go By bird man, Ronnie, 2013.