James Ranalph Jackson

Jackson’s watercolour 'The Early Bird' depicts an artist painting en plein air. The figure is active in his pose, poised with his weight on one foot and arm extended with a brush in hand. Jackson’s style displays impressionistic tendencies. In the foreground, he places flat daubs of paint in varying levels of saturation and tone to depict the earth. The marks forming the shadow of the figure, easel and tree fade out into a puddle of deep purple as the paint becomes more sheer and the brush marks less distinguished. The figure is also painted with limited detail; only a few subtle marks provide the indication of a face. Jackson makes use of the blue grey colour of the paper for the expanse of sky, adding white paint to depict clouds. The work is completed with a fragmented black frame painted only in the bottom left corner of the earth, while the sky is left to extend beyond the picture plane. The figure’s skin is quite tanned in complexion, perhaps a nationalistic nod to the effects of the Australian sun. Furthermore, the painting within a painting concept raises possible implications. The painter looks out at the viewer, positioning our space as an extension of his landscape. As his gaze returns ours, the place of the viewer is transformed so that we become a sight to be consumed, just as we consume the artwork.