Lemon Street Gallery at Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh, until 29 March 2008

Kurt Jackson RWA - Loch Garten evening, 28.5 x 30 cm, Mixed media (© Kurt Jackson / Lemon Street Gallery).

A BRIEF examination of these works by the commercially popular, Cornwall-based landscape artist Kurt Jackson is a pleasing experience, although perhaps the most impressive aspect of the show is in the detail. The specification for each reveals that the vast majority of them – and there are over thirty – were created in the month of April 2007.

It’s an astonishing workrate, considering how finely-formed and evocative each of Jackson’s pieces are. The accompanying blurb tells us that he vividly remembers a childhood skiing holiday in the Cairngorms at the age of twelve, and the splashes of clear memory which recollections of youth evoke are recreated here. His work, however – completed during a further visit to the area in last year’s apparently busy month – portrays lowland lochs and foliage, rather than snowy peaks.

Mostly oil works of varying scale, with one or two small, sketch-like etchings among them, they do look like they were painted in a hurry. That’s part of the beauty, however – in the sketched-out black and green shapes of trees and tall grasses, Jackson creates a clear picture and also a hazy visual image of what he’s depicting. It would be interesting to know whether he works in situ, or from photographs, or perhaps from a quick pencil sketch he might take while he’s there.

The dim edges around his works suggest hazy memories of sounds and smells, as well as sights. ‘Evening Caledonian Forest’ and ‘Loch Garten from the shelter of the woods, a cool breeze, the sun’s gone in’ could even do without that latter’s description – Jackson positions the dimming light behind and away from the trees just enough that they become dark shapes, with the still-clear loch behind. ‘Sunshine deep in the forest’ exaggerates this effect more, the darkened spires of tall trees forming one forbidding mass, with a hint of sharp, blue sky peering over the top.

Where the light falls clear on the land, though, is where Jackson sees an almost hyperreal colour in the world. ‘Craiggowrie’ is spectacular, a rippling bed of lime green, red and pink land, towered over by a bruise-blue mountain and a slate-blue sky. This must be dusk, although it’s bright and exaggerated.

Jackson’s most impressive works are the ones in which he includes his representation of water. Looking over the Spey and Lochs Garten and Mallachie, he dimples the clear blue surface with fine white spots of paint, showing every ripple and wave sparkling in the sun – the finest example being the large-scale ‘Spey’, which sits proudly in the window of the gallery. Such a succinct and clear understanding of how to reimagine the colours of nature is a special talent, and one which shines through in the work.

© Dave Pollock, 2008

Links

• Below the Cairngorms