a heron amongst the storm
The multi-toned background that defines Jackson’s image calls to mind a verdant setting of lush tropical foliage, into which the delicate outline of the titular heron appears to blend and dissolve. Through a continual process of overpainting, the artist has slowly obscured the details of this scene, including the hunched figure of a man (the artist’s father) cutting coconuts, whose presence represents comfort and strength, just as the bird symbolises longevity and persistence in the mind of the artist. The symbolic character of the image is further reinforced by a sense that the storm in question is in fact metaphorical in nature – mirroring the artist’s own internal struggles.
About the Artist
John Reno Jackson
b. 1995
John Reno Jackson is an emerging contemporary Caymanian painter. He attended foundation courses in painting and drawing at the London Art Academy in 2015. Since then, he has continued his painterly explorations through a series of abstract works made in Grand Cayman. Jackson has exhibited at Paulo – PADA Studios in Barreiro, Portugal, where he attended an artist’s residency in 2020, and at Artisan Space in London, UK. His work is in the permanent collection of NGCI, where it was featured in the exhibitions Island of Women: Life at Home During Our Maritime Years (2020), Reimagined Futures – 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial (2021) and The People’s Collection – A 25-Year Cultural Legacy (2022).
