On the 15th of March ‘Transition’ will be auctioned at the Cornwall Community Foundation’s 2023 Gala. This foundation helps communities in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by awarding small grants to community and non-profit organisations who are changing peoples lives across the county.
Transition (right) - 125 x 125cm
There are some exciting things happening in and around my new purpose built studio gallery in Rock.
This spring I am exhibiting my Watergate Bay series alongside ceramics and sculpture by friends and family.
An artist residency at Watertgate Bay, Cornwall
Read MoreI have spent the past two years exploring an evolving abstract approach to my work. After an intensive period of research and creative development, the result is ‘Impermanent Horizon’.
Best known for his expansive seascapes, contemporary painter Jethro Jackson has spent the past two years exploring an evolving abstract approach to his work. After an intensive period of research and creative development, the result is ‘Impermanent Horizon’.
This exciting new series of paintings will be shown at Project Twenty Two, Jethro’s new contemporary space at the end of the summer. Until then, six small paintings from the group will be on loan to Nathan Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen in Port Isaac.
We talked to Jethro to find out how days at sea, thinking about sustainability and reconnecting with the Cornish modernist master painters have led him to this new chapter in his creative life...
“In the summer of 2021, I joined my friend on his day boat on a series of days at sea. We’d leave Cadgwith very early in the morning when it was still dark. The smell of the sea and sensations of being out on the water all day were totally consuming.
I experienced first hand the dedication and intense focus of the fishermen in this traditional industry. The simplified, low impact process of small boat commercial angling – catching fish with a rod and line, was a real eye opener for me. It got me thinking about over-fishing in Cornish waters, and how the sea is one of our most precious resources.
The paintings take moments of those days at sea and extend them. Repetitive linear marks scratched into the surface are the path of the boat as it tracks the fish back and forth again and again. Or the taut fishing line cutting the surface of the water.
For this group, I worked with Lapis Lazuli and gold leaf – the idea being that the preciousness of these materials represents the finite resource that is the sea itself. The abstract linear forms and minimalist motifs are inspired by the Cornish masters – Lanyon, Hepworth, Nicholson and Scott.
These paintings represent an important moment in my life and my art – they are the result of a deeply cathartic and in-depth exploration of abstraction, colour, form and materials. This evolving series represents my feelings about sustainability and the environment and are an urgent call to preserve our greatest natural resource, the ocean.
Working on this group has allowed me to take a step away from the style I’m best known for, and explore a whole new visual language. However, these paintings are deeply connected to Cornwall. They are dedicated to the anglers and fisherman who work tirelessly in all the elements to preserve this way of catching fish. An ancient process at the heart of my community, but one that sadly we risk losing forever.”
Six small paintings from the Impermanent Horizon group will be on show at Nathan Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen this summer. Jethro and Nathan are aligned in their wish for a sustainable future for the fishing industry. The two of them hope that the paintings will help to connect diners to the care, passion and craftsmanship that bring a fish from sea to plate.
