Contemporary artist Kurt Jackson, whose own art process is heavily informed by studied observation and deep respect for the natural world, was invited to curate an exhibition reflecting his concerns about environmental change. Jackson has used Penlee House’s collections and the art of the Newlyn School as evidence of this change and created his own artistic response.

Jackson values these Victorian paintings not simply as beautiful pieces of art, but equally as a visual record; a window to the natural world as seen and utilised in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For Jackson, these paintings by artists such as Stanhope Forbes, Harold Harvey and Lamorna Birch function as a reference point for comparison to today.

In the curation of this exhibition, Jackson focused on the botanical as represented by the Newlyn School – selecting paintings with flora, plant matter and local habitats depicted as setting, background or subject and, through meticulous research, pin-pointed the original vantage points. For Jackson, these became places to visit and study and sometimes to make his own works to illustrate the changes and processes that have occurred in the last 100 years or so; an opportunity to demonstrate both losses and gains within the plant world.