Flora, curated by Kurt Jackson - 150 years of environmental change in Cornwall, 9 0ctober - 11 January 2025, Penlee House in Penzance, Cornwall.
This show is a collaboration between painter Kurt Jackson and curator Katy Herbert.
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| Harold Harvey 1922 'Chy-an-Mor' |
What a bright idea - environmental concerns being the popular theme now in art circles - to take over 50 past paintings of Cornish landscape and contrast them with Kurt Jackson’s new paintings of the same places, adding information about the ecological changes that have taken place over many years.
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| Kurt Jackson 'Green and leafy Chyenal Scent of water mint, wrens chatter in the willow carr' 2024 |
At first I felt resistant to reading the long tracts of information but I gradually warmed to it and took in the information about what plants have disappeared or become rare and how climate change is affecting the landscape.
I ended up wishing there was a book of the show but there are no plans for one.
I also noticed how painting has changed from the soft gentle observations of the Newlyn school to Jackson’s brighter colours put on with their own elan and detail.
How frames have altered from carefully crafted carved gilded wonders to simple white wood.
These quietly observational ways of painting exist extensively in the western world.
It’s quite something to put your own pictures next to these old favourites but Kurt Jackson has his own equal attention and delicacy.
Interestingly he has avoided pricing his work but given details of how to enquire about buying them.
The older revered paintings are from collections including Penlee’s own.
