Page 59 - The Hunt - Fall 2022

The finished version of “Maroon Bells.”
“The first few years were hand to mouth,” he recalls. “But it paid the bills. I painted traditionally for seven or eight years. Then I started to put a little fun into my paintings.”
There was pushback from some of his galleries, but he persisted in pursuing art that “demands the viewer to have a conversation.” It was what collectors wanted. “People noticed,” Jackson says. “I had this one painting that didn’t sell. Suzanne liked it, so
I took it home and gave it to her, and we hung it. Then someone who’d seen it wanted to buy it. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘You gave it to me. It’s mine.’ Then she asked how much they were willing to pay for it. I told her $26,000. She immediately said, ‘Oh, then it’s out of here.’”
All in all, times are good for the Jackson family. There was a near disaster a few years ago, when Jackson fell off a ladder while working on his display window, fracturing vertebrae. Now he’s walking six miles a day, two miles at a time. On one of those walks,
he talks about his children. Luke, the youngest, a senior at Unionville High School, wants to become a professional photographer. Tessa is a science teacher preparing to marry an artist just launching his career. And Becca, the oldest, is an actress and a singer. Ever
the supportive father, Jackson is pleased the apples haven’t fallen very far from the tree.
Jackson knows many of the local painters in Wyeth country. He respects their work, but is happy to have his own style. He relates a conversation he had with one museum
director, who asked what style he’d really like to paint if money wasn’t an issue. It isn’t an issue, of course. Jackson’s career has flourished because he paints the way he wants to. “In many ways I may seem laid back, but I’m driven by my art,” he says. “I want to have a distinctive voice. If someone has to look at the name tag beside one of my paintings to see who painted it, then I’m lost.”
Those balloon dogs aren’t likely to let that happen.
Visit robertcjackson.com.
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