Kurt Jackson5 May 2010
"Paradise, absolute paradise"
Kurt Jackson is a landscape artist and environmentalist. He lives and works on the Cornish coast in the west of England:
...if more people just hung out in the countryside in beautiful places perhaps we wouldn't go round damaging [it] so much.
He paints in all weathers, canvases weighed down by granite boulders.
He's been resident artist at the Glastonbury Festival for the last 7 years, painting bands such as Coldplay, Oasis, Radiohead. He says:
I listen to a lot of music... bands influence me to question things.
Natural & neutral
Kurt's love for art and for the natural world are deeply interlinked:
All through my childhood I was interested in natural history... by the the time I was 15, I was really interested in [environmental politics].
His home is carbon neutral. It operates on energy sources not derived from fossil fuels - one of only a handful in the UK. It has a wind turbine, solar panels and a heat exchange pump bored under the house.
He and his family also grow most of their own vegetables:
It's that whole footprint thing... I think everyone should be able to do it [be carbon neutral] but that's dependent on more grants from the government...
"...an amazing world..."
Friends of the Earth's work is important to me and my art.
Kurt joined Friends of the Earth when he was a teenager. It was a significant time for him - he travelled widely and learnt a lot:
...look outside your own world and see if there are other ways of doing things. Meet other people with other ideas, and enjoy the diversity of the world. Question everything; look at everything with fresh eyes.
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