biography of Clifford Carleton JACKSON (1924-1985)

Birth place: San Diego, CA

Death place: Grand Manan, ME

Addresses: Elizabethtown, NY/Amawalk, NY

Profession: Portrait painter, landscape painter

Studied: Clifford Carleton (his grandfather); Wayman Adams, at the Old Mill Art School, Elizabethtown, NY, 1930s; U.S. Navy Music Sch., 1943-49; Amagansett Sch. Art, Sarasota, FL, with Harry Ballinger and Hilton Leach; portraiture with Eugen Spiro, 1951; PAFA with F. Speight, F. Watkins, and W. Stumpfig, 1951-53; Columbia Univ. (MFA), 1958.

Exhibited: Norfolk Mus. Arts & Sciences, 1948-51 (solo, 1951); SC, 1953 (portraiture prize), 1960s (prize for Adirondacks ldscp.); PMA, 1955; Adirondack Center Mus., 1989 (retrospective)

Member: SC, 1958; Portraits, Inc., 1958-85

Work: Adirondack Center Mus., Elizabethtown, NY

Comments: One of the leading portrait artists in America until his sudden death in 1985. He painted landscapes during several trips to Spain, 1953-55. Beginning in 1961, he made painting excursions to the Berkshire mountains (Mass.) and along the coasts of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, and Monterey, Calif. Throughout his life he pursued a dual career in the arts: he was also 1st flutist with several symphony orchestras, 1946-85. Teacher: Old Mill Art School, Elizabethtown, NY, 1950s; Silvermine Sch. Art, New Canaan, CT, 1970s-85; Columbia Univ. Teachers College, 1960s.

Sources: Falk, Peter, Clifford Jackson, Of Landscapes and Symphonies (Madison: Sound View Press; exh. cat. for Adirondack Center Mus., 1989; Singer, Joe, Painting Women"s Portraits )Watson-Guptil, NY, 1977).