In memory of Mike Jackson
A life spent
looking at the world
a little differently.
Mike Jackson painted the world as he saw it: colourful, slightly wonky, occasionally ridiculous, and full of characters.
1962 — 2026
The artist
A life spent finding the extraordinary in the ordinary
For more than two decades, Somerset was Mike’s home and his inspiration.
From the streets of Wells to the harbours of the Dorset coast, Mike found paintings in the places and people around him — crooked buildings, seaside holidaymakers, animals with attitude and the little moments of everyday life that most of us might walk straight past.
Before the paintings
He wasn’t supposed to become an artist
Mike left school with few qualifications but with a great love of art. His family encouraged him to learn a trade so that he would always have something to fall back on.
So he became a butcher.
After a wide and varied career, Mike eventually followed the artistic path. He became a graphic designer, taught himself the software and built his skills through curiosity, experimentation and plenty of mistakes.
Somerset
Somerset became home
Mike moved to Somerset in 1999, and the landscape quickly became part of his visual language.
He became a familiar face around Wells and the wider South West, selling his work through markets, galleries and directly to collectors.
For many people, Mike wasn’t simply the artist whose work they owned. He was the artist they knew.
The paintings
Finding the funny side of ordinary life
Mike’s paintings were never really about making the world look perfect.
They were about making it interesting.
His characters lean, shuffle, stare and slouch. His houses don’t always seem entirely convinced that standing straight is necessary. His animals have personalities. His seaside scenes are full of people who look as though something has just happened — or is about to.
There was humour in Mike’s work, but there was also affection.
Self taught
He learned by doing
Mike never followed the conventional route into art.
There was no formal art school. Instead, there was curiosity, hard work and a willingness to teach himself.
He spent years developing his watercolour skills, later discovering a love for acrylics. He described learning through his own mistakes as an important part of developing his technique and finding his own way of working.
“He saw the world in colourful, quirky ways, always finding beauty in the ordinary.”— Mike’s family
A body of work
Hundreds of little stories
Mike’s ideas often began as tiny sketches. He would make hundreds of drawings before developing the few that eventually became paintings.
Over the years those sketches became an enormous body of work — Somerset, Devon and Dorset, animals, houses, boats, seaside characters, Mods, Hoodies and all the wonderfully odd people who inhabited Mike’s imagination.
Each painting is a small story, told in Mike’s own unmistakable way.
The legacy
The paintings continue
Mike’s collection is now complete.
There will be no new paintings, but the work itself doesn’t disappear.
Mike’s family continues to look after his studio and his collection. Prints are produced from his existing work, with certificates of authenticity signed and authenticated by the Jackson family on Mike’s behalf.
The paintings are a finished body of work — but they continue to find their way into people’s homes.
Remembering Mike
Mike made people look at ordinary things differently. He found humour in them, beauty in them, and stories worth painting.
His family will continue to look after his work, so that those stories can continue to be enjoyed for years to come.
Browse Mike’s paintings →