GARY COOK RI SGFA

Gary Cook is an elected member of both the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) and of the Society of Graphic Fine Art (SGFA) where he has twice been awarded 'Best in Show' at their annual exhibitions. He is an associate member of The Arborealists. He writes regularly for Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and the Dorset Magazine. He sits on the councils of the RI and SGFA.

He graduated from Bournemouth in 1987 and was made a fellow of the university in 1999. He is an environmental painter who explores our complicated relationship with and often detrimental impact on nature. The combination of naturalistic painting and narrative script that characterise his watercolours are a direct result of 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 for his illustrations.

“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, a remarkable nine metres round.”.