Gary Cook - Leaning Oak, Petworth

G A R Y  C O O K 
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Gary Cook lives and works in Dorset. He graduated from Bournemouth in 1987 and was made a fellow of the university in 1999. He is an environmental painter creating watercolour and ink montages: a fusion of traditional painting 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, winning many international awards.

”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 2,200 different species from bats to beetles and lichens to mammals. The names of some of these species are discreetly included in my paintings."

"I always feel a deep connection and a sense of wellbeing when under the tree canopy. Being able to combine this joy with painting is such a privilege."
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"I really enjoy painting the amazing trees in the parklands of Petworth House. There is an incredible 900-year-old oak in the grounds and I relished the challenge of capturing on paper the strength of its trunk, an incredible nine meters round."

​Cook's work was awarded 'Best in Show' at the Society of Graphic Fine Arts' Draw exhibition and has shown with the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), The RBA, The Arborealists and the RWA in Bristol. He is The Ecologist magazine's Arts Editor and a member of the SGFA