Drawn together by art: The Ann Jackson Gallery

"When you're out walking, you know how interested you are in looking at what's coming, what's around the bend. You want to get down there to see. It's so exciting, " she said.

The artist's life is like that, too, always with something anticipated around the next bend. For Jackson, a lifetime interest in art has blossomed into the cornerstone of Roswell's art scene going into its 35th year, supporting a large family along the way.

The latest twist in her path was a surprise when two of her daughters began to paint seriously, and all three showed their work together this fall for the first time in the gallery on Canton Street.

The business started in the 1960s with one weekend garage sale. Jackson and a friend decided to clean out the space and show their paintings.

"The day of the sale, I was putting the posters out around the neighborhood, and when I got back to the house, I couldn't find a place to park, " Jackson said.

Bolstered by that success, her husband, Basil, suggested renting a space in Roswell. At first, it was a room in an antiques store, then in a shoe store across Canton Street.

"We took a course on how to frame and went to the different molding companies, " Jackson said, explaining the way she and Basil meet challenges: read how to do it, then do it.

Basil left his engineering job to concentrate on the business until Valerie, the oldest, took it over. Then he went back to Lockheed.

When the historic square was being redeveloped, the gallery moved there for more space and parking.

Later, when space was available on Canton Street, the family business moved there, where it remains. A second location on Johnson Ferry Road was short-lived.

Today, Ann Jackson Gallery is an anchor of the Roswell Art District, stretching from Oak Street up Canton Street to Woodstock Road.

An organization of 11 galleries, the area now offers two two-day art walks and scores of show openings a year in what some say is a scene on par with Decatur or Marietta.

For Ann Jackson, the path to get there was risky and involved raising eight children, painting, framing, running the business, living on a sailboat, rebuilding it after it sank in a hurricane, retiring to Tybee Island and continuing to paint what she sees.

None of it was easy, but Jackson said God provided.

"It always looked like we were very rich, and we were just managing from day to day. We all pitched in."

When she was 19, she married Basil, a war hero nine years her senior. She moved from her Cleveland home to his near Atlanta, where his father was the British consulate.

The children arrived fairly regularly for 14 years.

"If my canvas was large enough, they would be painting underneath me --- maybe two of them --- and I'd be painting from the top. When I got to where they were, I would send them off and I would finish the painting."

All were exposed to art --- through painting, sculpture, gardening --- and all have worked at the gallery and framing business.

Today it's run by Valerie Jackson with sister Mary Wheeless in the business office. Victoria Jackson of Woodstock and Margaret Jackson Killorin of Tybee show their work, and Patricia Emmick, the youngest, lives in Duluth and is an interior designer through the shop.

"I wasn't aware I was teaching, but I guess I was --- just to expose them and hand them the materials.

"I'm very, very proud of them and surprised because they never tried anything on their own until lately. They just expected me to be the artist, and they would do the framing, " Ann Jackson said of her crew.

And still the path keeps bending.

"Even Patricia, when she was recently down here for a weekend, said, 'Well, I wonder if I can paint?' So I gave her the paint, and she did it. Her son wanted to paint and whipped out two of them."

Many other grandchildren are interested.

"It just must be a very strong gene, " she said. "They all seem to be into the arts."

The day after daugher Mary was married at their Crabapple home, the Jacksons sold the house and set out on their 42-foot sailboat, which looked much like a sketch Basil made while he was a prisoner of war in World War II.

When it sank two years later, the couple flew to Jacksonville. Basil took an engine repair course, and the class rebuilt the engine. Ann took upholstery classes and fixed that, along with the sails and covers.

When they tied up at docks, Ann Jackson painted, placing her work in galleries in Nassau and Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas and various islands.

In 1998, they decided to come ashore at Tybee Island.

Now 73, Jackson continues to paint every day, sometimes until dinnertime, at the island house she and Basil share, its wide porches accommodating visiting kids and grandkids.

"Everyone asks when I started to paint. My first recollection of art is I'd always ask Santa Claus for paint, " she said.

Catherine Moore, artist and owner of Heaven Blue Rose Gallery, next door to the Ann Jackson Gallery, said that when she opened 14 years ago, the Jackson family "could have welcomed us graciously or put their noses up in the air. Of course, they were very gracious."

At the time, Moore recalls, there were three galleries in Roswell. Gallery V had an annual Christmas event, and then Heaven Blue Rose and Ann Jackson galleries decided to hold theirs at the same time, staying open late to draw more art lovers to the area.

Now 11 galleries are part of the Roswell Art District.

"The art is definitely here, and it's available and the pricing is well within an affordable budget, " Moore said, comparing Roswell to Decatur and Marietta.

Much of the success is founded on work started by Ann Jackson Gallery, Moore said.

"They knew what people like. I guess you could say they were the cornerstone."

Ann Jackson likes to paint landscapes and is interested in pursuing more sculpture. "I like earthy tones. Since being in the islands and seeing the brighter colors and being on Tybee, my style has matured into more color." Often her canvases draw the viewer down a path.

Margaret Jackson Killorin often paints exaggerated faces in vibrant colors such as red, yellow and blue. Called the Rhoda of the family after the character on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show, " she is a people person, flamboyant and creative.

"I find that my paintings are what people can't see in real life --- they show individuality and the intelligence of dreams and emotions. I love the color and feel it influences the dramatic zest for life, " Killorin said.

Victoria Jackson's work is generally more contemporary than her mother's, with cleaner lines.

"I'm still learning, " Victoria Jackson said. "I'm going to be a great artist someday. I promise. But I'm very affordable now."

Ann Jackson notes the differences in their landscapes, but said sometimes she has to walk right up to a painting to read the signature to know whether it's hers or Victoria's.

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