Gary Cook RI

Statement

Gary Cook is a Dorset-based environmental painter creating watercolour and ink montages: a fusion of naturalistic painting and narrative script with subtle messages about sustainability hidden within the works. His style is directly influenced by his background in the newspaper industry where he was an associate editor and the senior artist for The Sunday Times for 26 years.

"Working for a newspaper, I often produced diagrams highlighting environmental problems. In the last decade as a painter, including an environmental message in each piece has been very important to me. For example, oak trees, which are under threat, provide the habitat for around 2,300 different species from bats to beetles and lichens to mammals. Silhouettes and names of some of these species are discreetly included in my paintings."

Bio

Gary graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth in 1987 and was made a fellow in 1999. He was an associate editor and the senior artist for The Sunday Times for 26 years winning many international awards.