I wanted to paint my kitties’ portrait in the style of the Old Masters. In classical portraiture the sitter can be identified by the objects they hold and the background landscape. Toby and Missy are surrounded by their favorite toys and favorite flavor: seafood. Behind them are Black Mountain, the Los Osos Valley hills and the Avila golf course, establishing the location as San Luis Obispo CA. As indoor kitties, they have never seen a real mousey, so if he remains still behind the catnip, they will never see him, either as a toy or a treat.
Original Oil 24 x 36, Giclee Reproduction prints are available for all of my works.
Please Contact Me for information, availability and pricing.
JO JACKSON – Artist
In 2012, I enrolled in a painting class at the urging of friends actively recruiting live bodies to keep it from being cancelled for lack of enrollment. What I didn’t know at the time was that this would tap into a wellspring of creativity and talent heretofore unknown and entirely unexpected.
What a joyous surprise to discover I was actually pretty darn good at it, and even more delightful was the discovery that others loved my work as much as I loved creating it! This was truly a gift of the Muses.
I have lived in the Arena of the Muses all my life. Growing up in southern New Mexico, I was encouraged to explore the worlds of creativity, fantasy and imagination. Over the years I have been active in community theatre, played viola in two Wyoming symphonies, lead Master Gardener workshops, and ran the tool room of the largest steel fabrication shop west of the Mississippi River. Today I am the logistics coordinator of a local music festival, am active in several community theatres as a stage manager and actor, and am a newly retired licensed landscape architect. Of course a painting gene would be hiding in there somewhere waiting to be set free!
My pieces come from the heart and evolve in a synergy that weaves between canvas and artist as my brushes bring them to life, with a sentience of their own that directs me. The Zen of the process is as rewarding as the finished piece, perhaps more so. At the end of a painting session, when I step back into the mundane, I am overcome with the Oneness of the experience.