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Justin Cooke | |||
Justin Cooke |
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Enquire about Justin Cooke Justin Cooke is an artist whose paintings sit within a tradition of British artists inspired by landscape in all its forms. Fusing technique and deep contemplation of the landscape, Justin Cooke's paintings tap into the memory of places once glimpsed and passing moments half-remembered. It is this suggested familiarity which gives his work its universal appeal. |
JUSTIN COOKE BIOGRAPHY
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STATEMENT Fusing technique and deep contemplation of the landscape, Justin Cooke’s paintings tap into the memory of places once glimpsed and passing moments half-remembered from childhood. It is this suggested familiarity which gives his work its universal appeal. He realized early on in his career that landscape would always be his subject, and the South Dorset Ridgeway, known since his childhood, and Cornwall are two of his most re-visited locations. Immersing himself in his chosen landscapes he gathers information almost by osmosis, complementing this with digital photography as an aide memoir. Returning to his studio, his methods are too unpredictable for outdoor working; he will work quite figuratively on idea related to something he has seen. His palette tends to be hot, not literally the colours he has observed but related to them and exaggerated. Each painting leads on to the next and he will often take a section, "a small bit that interests me" into a painting, gradually distilling the visual information and becoming more and more abstract in his reading of the motif, until he has "a whole family tree of paintings going back to the original one." Just occasionally the process of honing in on a detail will happen at the beginning whilst he is still in the landscape. Justin Cooke works on heavy off-white paper saturating it with poured watercolour, carefully planning different areas of colour. He rubs very soft, friable pastels into the wet surface, creating a paste which lightens as it dries, necessitating a precise knowledge of each hue. Controlling the drying of the paper he continues with pastels which have a harder, grittier texture more suited to drawn marks. Once the paint is completely dry he scrapes back through the layers with a palette knife searching for the jewel-like colours of the colours of the watercolour underneath. The dawn lines and scratches are related to the residue s left on the landscape by the strip lynchets and field enclosures, and he likes "the way you can’t tell if the marks on the land are recent or iron age." He feels that the building up and scraping away of layers replicates "what is happening in the fields anyway." "Justin Cooke originally started using pastel on top of watercolour as a way of introducing light areas on patches of dark paint, and he works in oil in a similar way, using sand to fill out the texture. As a colourist he has more of an affinity with painting than with drawing. It is always colour which is the essential ingredient, driving the painting forward and making it recognizably his work". Excerpt from FIFTY WESSEX ARTISTS EDUCATION B.A. (Hons) Fine Art, Newcastle University 1984-1988 SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1995 East and West, Studio 3 Gallery, London Abstract, Studio 3 Gallery, London East and West touring show, Heatherslow Gallery, Northumberland group Show, Galleriet, Norberg, Sweden 1996 Talents, Studio 3 Gallery, London 1997 Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, London Six Contemporaries, Touring Exhibition 1998 Dorset Art Week Richmond Gallery, London Holland Gallery, London 1999 Portland Portrayed, The Gallery, Dorchester 2000 Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset Dorset Art Week 2002 Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne,Dorset Dorset Art Week 2003 Rostra Gallery, Bath 2004 Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset Chalk House Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, London 2004 Dorset Art Week Withers Gallery, Norfolk 2005 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Open Painting Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 153rd Autumn Exhibition New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, Surrey 2006 Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, Surrey Dorset Art Week Innocent Fine Art, Bristol Maltby Art, Winchester, Hampshire Rostra Gallery, Bath Bournmouth University Art Loan Collection 2006/2007 Fifty Wessex Artists, Brewhouse Gallery, Taunton Sarah Wiseman Gallery, "The Art of Giving" SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1987-92 Dorset County Library, Dorset 1989 Gallery 273, Queen Mary Colege, London Dance Attic Studio, London 1995 Justin Cooke, Allsop Gallery, Bridport Art Centre,Dorset 1996 Sea Sky and Landscape,Studio 3 Gallery, London 1988-06 Annual Summer Exhibition, Upwey, Weymouth, Dorset (19 exhibitions) AWARDS 2005 Royal West Academy of England Academy, Friends Prize |
Justin Cooke - Evening Light
Justin Cooke - Ridgeway Path