Dan Cook
Paintings
Great Britain
About the artist
Drawing has always been at the forefront of my learning
Dan Cook is a British painter, born in Cambridge and raised in the south-east of England.
He currently lives near St Ives Bay in Cornwall.
Drawing has always been at the forefront of his learning, from early childhood to the present day. With a working background in commercial illustration, Dan has produced artwork for a wide range of brands, theatre and design installations, transferring his artistic working techniques to digital formats.
In recent years he has moved strongly away from these processes and outcomes, focussing on a personal and immediate perception of the natural environment using oil paint and pencil.
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Dan's process involves a constant endeavour to decipher and capture an ever-changing subject. It may be the light, a surface or simply a place and atmosphere that defines the artwork. By collecting personal reactions to his surroundings, the need for a physical, unique representation of these reactions has become essential, compelling and urgent.
Working on wood panels provides a solid foundation for much of the wall art. Each work starts from a visual plan, but often the first physical marks begin on the finished work itself.
This is a memory work. A memory of a place or a feeling one has felt, rather than an attempt to represent an entire view or arrangement. The current collection has a common thread of stone surfaces, refracted daylight and the way the eye delivers colour to us, penetrated, distorted or focused.
Diluted, inky colour mixtures and patiently built up layers explore the well-kept secrets of natural water. Etching, scratching and sanding combine with a solid surface. Staring into ponds and caressing rocks is something of a pastime.
All artworks are started and completed in a small studio.
Dan's work has now been shown in solo and group exhibitions and regularly attracts collectors at UK art fairs. His art is sold internationally and his work is distributed throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.