“To paint the Karoo is to capture both its silence and its strength – the history written in old clay walls and the vast light that brings the veld to life.”

Hilton Jackson is an established Oudtshoorn-based fine artist with over 30 years of professional experience capturing the soul of the Little Karoo. Deeply influenced and motivated by his late mother, who was also an artist, Hilton has spent decades refining a visual language that celebrates local heritage, the Karoo landscape, historic Cape Dutch architecture, and traditional old farm workers’ cottages.

Working with a diverse range of mediums, Hilton is widely recognized for his striking, high-texture palette knife and heavy impasto techniques. As a proud local voice in the Oudtshoorn creative community, Hilton’s exhibition at this year’s Klein Karoo Klassique invites visitors to pause and experience the regional landscape through a lens of deep appreciation, history, and vibrant, tactile colour.