River Current Four - Acrylic on Paper

Born in Cheshire, England, in 1931, Cooke moved to the US as a teenager and studied Art History at Harvard University. He then moved to Ireland in 1954 and had his first solo exhibition in Dublin the following year. Since then, Cooke has immersed himself in the landscapes of Ireland and has lived in Kilkenny and Sligo.

Much of Cooke's art is inspired by the quotation from Heraclitus: 'All existence flows in the stream of creation and passing away.' Today, living on an island swept by rain clouds and traversed by rivers, the artist has focused this philosophical meditation on the Irish landscape and on the sport of fishing. Cooke, in fact, is a keen fisherman and naturalist, with a passion for marine biology.

His style is richly expressionistic and semi-abstract, drawing from his many experiences abroad and strongly influenced by his time spent in such far-flung places as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaysia.