GALLERY & CLASSES
THE ARTS CENTER OF MONTROSS
HUBERT JACKSON
Hubert Jackson was born in 1943 in Culpeper, Virginia. He began a correspondence course in commercial art during high school and went on to formally study painting, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture and photography. Jackson earned his Bachelors in Fine Arts Education at Virginia State University in 1965.
​
After graduation, he moved to Washington D.C. In 1971 he earned his Master's degree in painting from Howard University. In the early '70s, he participated in the historical national movement of community based mural projects under the advisement of Hughie Lee-Smith.
​
In 1999 Jackson retired from 34 years of teaching art in the Washington, D.C. public schools and settled in Colonial Beach, Virginia. In 2004 he attended the Corcoran School of Art. Jackson has exhibited extensively. His work is in a number of private collections in the U.S. and has been shown in foreign countries such as Lesotho, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea and New Guinea, through the Artist in Embassies program.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Whether my work is non-objective or representative – or a blend of both – the creative spirit within me remains the same. When I paint, I feel a certain spirituality and a need to express it in a way that leaves a positive and lasting impression.
Some of my recent work deals with the period of American history from its inception throughout the Civil War and in particular the spirits of those who have come and gone but remain anonymous and unaccounted for through war, slavery, poverty or the passage of time. Although they are no longer physically present, their spirits remain with us as they have become one with nature – embodied within the life forms that emerge from the earth.
​
Much of my work is characterized by the symbolic use of pine bark figures to represent spirits of long forgotten ancestors. The very nature of pine bark – its shape and textures – appears to suggest human forms, especially bark from old growth trees. I feel that by juxtaposing these limbless entities over and about recognizable human figures and scenes, I am connecting with and validating the existence of those whose shoulders we stand on.
​
The march of humanity from our earliest origins in Africa has at times taken turns that make us forget that we are of one race and we rise and fall as one.
​