The Scotsman - 23rd April 2002

Painting to the Beat

Kurt Jackson did a line in quiet watercolours - then he became Glastonbury Festival’s artist in residence. Cat Rogers reports.

Kurt Jackson is an artist leading a double life. Usually a plein-air landscape painter, his work is mostly characterised by watercolours of rural Cornwall. In 1999 he became the first artist in residence at the Glastonbury Festival, painting bands such as REM, Blondie and Travis.

“Looking out over a sea of 4,000 people isn’t so different from looking out over a sea of thistles,” says the artist. “I try to paint whatever I’m doing, whether I’m doing shopping or taking the kids to school.”

Jackson says of his Glastonbury gig, “I’m hoping to get the sensuality across as well - what I’m hearing, smelling and so on. There are many parallels.”

This week sees the start of the Cornishman’s first Scotish exhibition, for which he turned to the landscapes of, Mull, Arren and Kintyre for inspiration, “I don’t like to paint random places, I like there to be a purpose for it. So, for instance, my father used to work on the Ailsa Craig and around that area.”

Despite being so far from Cornwall, Jackson says that he felt at home in Scotland’s mountainous scenery. “The scale is bigger, but that sort of ruggedness, the rockiness, the way people farm and so on, they seemed very familiar to me.”

Born in 1961, Jackson was brought up in the heart of rural Dorset, where he became facinated with the countryside and with art. “My parents are both artists, so I got a lot of art education from them,” he says, “and it was then that I developed my interest in natural history. I’ve always been fascinated with what’s living and growing around me.”

That facination then led to a master degree in zoology at Oxford, which he admits was a terrible mistake. “I found the whole university experience far too academic, it didn’t suit me at all. I spent most of my time painting in the countryside near Oxford, or attending courses at the Ruskin College of Art.” Needless to say, zoology hasn’t figured much in Jackson’s career since then - “and I have no regrets about that,” he added firmly.

A regular at Glasonbury, Jackson eventually made contact with Michael Eavis, the festival’s founder, and struck a deal. “I get as many passes as I want,” he says, “Then I just sit on the main stage. I’m right next to the band, which is quite alarming. And after that I’ll walk around the site, painting, scribbling and drawing.”

The products of those scribbling’s earned Greenpeace and Oxfam £30,000 in 1999, after Jackson sold 15 of his Glastonbury paintings and gave the profits to charity. His philosophy on the subjects is simple. “If you’re able to make a different living out of what you do and can do something to help others you should.”

Does he ever get star-struck? “No, I don’t think so, I don’t think I am that kind of person. I find everyone facinating - the people you bump into in the street and so on. I’m a bit suspicious of people who are meant to be special; they’re not necessarily any more special than anyone else.”

Jackson has yet to paint a truly urban landscape, and as a die-hard country mouse that is unlikely to change, “I have not so much a phobia as a dislike of urban life”, he says. “Its just doesn’t suit me, I go to London once a year to see a show, but even then I only last about two days before I’m ready to come home. I don’t feel comfortable there, to be honest. But that’s not to say I’m not looking forward to being in Glasgow, I’m told it’s a great city.”

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