Jonathan Paul Jackson
(American, b. 1984)
Born in 1984, Jonathan Paul Jackson is a visual artist from Houston. Working in a range of mediums, from painting to illustration, Jackson, who is largely self-taught, has exhibited at galleries in Houston, Fort Worth, and San Antonio. In 2008, he began curating shows for other artists. As of 2020, Jackson was working on a series of hand-embellished photos of nature.
The Stork, The Dragon, The Snake and The Butterfly , 2018
Oil pastel and acrylic on cardboard;
63 x 51 inches
Gift of Linda and William Reaves, The Linda and William Reaves Collection of Texas Art
From Rubens to Rothko, many artists and artistic movements have been inspired by an obsession with color. Seurat and the Neo-Impressionists, employing optical theory, sought to intensify the relationship, complementary and contrasting, between pigments. Matisse and the Fauves abandoned naturalistic color to create painterly and emotive pictures. In their abstractions, Mondrian and Miró relied heavily on primary colors to achieve their respective artistic goals. The genius of these color-obsessed artists rests not only in their choice of color, but also in the way they applied the pigment to the surface, for color is perceived by the viewer differently depending on its application. Artist Jonathan Paul Jackson recognizes this truth and allows it to inform his work.
In The Stork, The Dragon, The Snake and The Butterfly, Jackson experiments with matter and color in relation to pattern and texture. Like a technicolor map of some labyrinthian coast with islands, isles, and inlets, The Stork, The Dragon, The Snake and The Butterfly invites the viewer to explore its complexities and expansiveness. The work harmonizes swaths of bright color with chunks of exposed corrugated cardboard. It coordinates simple, geometric patterns with chaotic, downward leaning streaks of red, yellow, black, and blue. The Stork, The Dragon, The Snake and The Butterfly, with its shedding, bleeding color, is cohesive and balanced in its chaos.