Kurt Jackson By Simon de Burton

Published: January 20 2007 02:00 | Last updated: January 20 2007 02:00

Location:Messum's, 8 Cork Street, London W1. Tel: +44 (0)20 7437 5545

Date:Until February 3. Open 10am-6pm weekdays, Saturdays 10am-4pm.
Catalogue online at www.messums.com

Need to know: If you're looking to be uplifted on a miserable January day,
visit this exhibition. If you want to be uplifted long-term, buy one of the
works. Whether they depict the heavy heat of a French riverbank in high
summer or the salty spume flicking off a Cornish sea, Jackson's paintings
transport you to the very spot. Shaven-headed and ear-pierced, Jackson could
pass for a formidable nightclub bouncer - but his appearance belies a deft
touch with brush and palette knife that makes him one of Britain's most
compelling contemporary painters.

Born in 1961, Jackson studied zoology at St Peter's, Oxford but spent much
of his time making the most of the facilities at the nearby Ruskin School of
Art. Aged 23 he decamped to St Just in Cornwall where he continues to paint
in the best "plein air" tradition regardless of the weather, often working
on a three-metre canvas spread along the shore, its corners weighed down
with stones. Jackson's aim is to alert viewers to the environment's
fragility as much as to its beauty, and money from some of the works sold in
this exhibition will be donated to Friends of the Earth.

Highlights: This is a two-part show that takes place at separate Messum's
galleries on opposite sides of Cork Street. One half features canvases
charting the life of two French rivers during the summer: the Coly and the
Aude. A genius depiction of the Coly dappled with weed, light and shadow and
a perspective-rich view of the Aude from on high carry the highest price
tags at £26,500 apiece, but £1,150 will buy a delightful six-inch-square
sketch from the series.

The second half of the exhibition focuses on the Cornish vegetable plot
which provides produce for the Jackson table - a two-foot canvas of
thistles, yarrow, grass and docks (£5,850) hints at how Jackson Pollock
might have handled such a landscape, while a mixed-media image of the
painter's wife overseeing an allotment bonfire almost allows the viewer to
smell the smoke. Yours to inhale whenever the fancy takes you for £2,850.

Compiled by

Simon de Burton

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