“In all our daily lives we encounter wildlife in one form or another, whether we live in the urban ‘jungle’ or rural ‘Arcadia’ – not necessarily rare, unusual species – but all of interest and I feel these experiences deserve our acknowledgement. In my case my way of acknowledging these creatures around me here in Cornwall is to paint or draw them; and what could be more apt than to exhibit these paintings in St Just – at the heart of where they were created.”

Natural history and the arts have been the two threads running throughout Kurt Jackson’s life. He has chosen to look again at zoology and make a body of work about fauna. Many of the subjects are the day to day animals he comes across – the birds, insects, fish but others have been sought out – looked for – the more unusual species.

The idea of a bestiary goes back to medieval times when religious instruction led to the interpretation of animal life often using beautiful illustrations for this purpose. Later many artists followed this idea but without the religious context.

This exhibition aims to celebrate the diversity of life around Kurt Jackson in his day to day life in Cornwall. The moth on the windowpane, the fish in the pond, the toad in the garden, the bird on the roof.
Jackson Foundation