NO.1 RICHARD COOK : Up Our Street - 8 Holland Street's neighbours, near and far

FOR OUR FIRST FEATURE, WE SPOKE TO ARTIST RICHARD COOK ABOUT DAY-TO-DAY LIFE IN HIS POETIC SEA-SIDE STUDIO… 

Cornwall based painter Richard Cook sees his art as on the fringes of nature in its importance to him. On a recent visit Cook described a ‘magical sea’ within which he searches for silver threads that lead him to a painting. Whether they be in Mount’s Bay, where he resides and swims, a Thomas Hardy poem or a buzzard soaring above the moor -

His day begins with a walk on the moor, searching for his favourite butterflies amongst the tussock and looking up to see which buzzards are about. Always walking with pen and paper, for a quick drawing before making his way to his studio. This morning, a red-bay willow herb with a distant blue sea. When we spoke, Cook described how he awoke in the middle of the night to see the moon brightly reflected in a still sea, upon which he felt a compulsion to draw, leading to his painting the next day; this surge of creative energy is what he seeks to find in the studio.   

Painting is rapid for Cook, because when he finds his thread, he wants to hold onto it, and it is this that produces the anarchic energy visible in the broad impasto strokes of his work. Cook’s strokes form paths of colour all over the canvas, and a mound of oil paint grows by the day in the studio as he mixes for painting anew. Though Cook says he doesn’t like to travel, it seems to us that every day he pursues adventure even if localised, and even if within his interior world.

Talking with Richard is to experience his stream of consciousness, his metaphors - looking for gold, catching quicksilver, silver threads. It feels as though he has carved out a magical life, even when discussing his days at the Royal College of Art in ’73 when it was free from student fees, and he paid £7 a week for a flat in Hampstead. There is an ease, and an authenticity to his work and life.

Richard Cook is much like his favourite creature, as he flits between his studio and the natural world. For this reason alone he is right UP OUR STREET, and an artist that we proudly work with at 8 Holland Street.

ALL IMAGES BY OLLIE TOMLINSON