Artist Kurt Jackson marks RNLI's work

Kurt Jackson said spending time at the old Penlee Lifeboat Station was "a very powerful experience"

Internationally acclaimed artist Kurt Jackson has spoken out about his emotional connection to the life-saving work of the RNLI.

The west Cornwall artist has shared his personal perspective in a new episode of the charity’s '200 Voices podcast'.

The project aims to celebrate "captivating stories" in the lead-up to the charity's bicentenary on 4 March 2024.

Mr Jackson said he found it an "incredibly powerful experience" to create a series of work from the Penlee Lifeboat Station, following the loss of the whole crew at sea 40 years ago.

From March to August the artist exhibited 'RNLI Cornwall' at the Jackson Foundation Gallery in St Just.

75 paintings were displayed that document the role of its lifeboats and lifeguards in the county - and raised over £24,000 for the charity.

In the podcast episode the artist talks about how his father was rescued by the RNLI when he was a child, as well as the emotions evoked during his time spent in the old Penlee Lifeboat Station.

It closed after losing eight crew members alongside another 8 people onboard a cargo ship, in a rescue attempt in 1981.

Mr Jackson said: "I managed to get access to the Penlee boathouse and made a series of works about that space, about that void where a boat should be, where now it’s empty.

"It’s frozen in time and it’s the most incredibly powerful experience to go in there, and hopefully I succeeded in making work to try and capture that feeling."