artists BIO

James Cook

"My work is more choreographed than planned because there is a sequence of marks that interact to portray the subject. When I pick up a brush or a trowel and lay down a line, the tool plows up paint and changes the mixture of color. I have to choreograph that interaction between one layer of detail and another. It always takes me somewhere I don't expect." - James Pringle Cook

James Pringle Cook was born in 1949 in Topeka, Kansas. He received his M.F.A. from Wichita State University in 1972. He now lives in  Arizona with his wife, and fellow artist, DeAnn Melton. (DeAnn also shows with Goldenstein Gallery).

Cook's paintings are in the best tradition of American landscape painting. He is an artist absorbed with the process of painting. He paints quickly and creates richly colored, highly textured surfaces. While his work is reminiscent of the Abstract Expressionists, it differs from them in that it projects a recognizable reality, dictated by his personal vision and technical skills. His paintings are bold and monumental in scope. Whether he depicts the ripples upon the surface of still pools in mountain streams or the color studies of a stormy sky, his use of color and contrasting textures and techniques invite the viewer into the scene. 

Cook often returns to Kansas to paint, plein air, the Flint Hills and other local landscape, often using a hardware store as his studio. His paintings are a consummate demonstration of years of hard work, of looking at and inhaling the landscape and rendering it in a unique and dramatic way.

Selected museum collections:

Brauer Museum of Art Valpariso University

Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, MO

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ

Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID

Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University, IN

Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

Des Moines Art Center, IA

Milwaukee Art Museum, WI

Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka, Japan

New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

Phoenix Art Museum, AZ

Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana
Emporia State University, Emporia, KS
Rahr-West Museum, Wisconsin
Arizona State University Museum of Art, Tempe
Indiana University Museum of Art, Bloomington
University of Minnesota Museum of Art
University of Utah Museum of Art, Salt Lake City
South Dakota Museum of Fine Arts, SD
Illinois State Museum, Springfield
State University at Albany Museum of Art, New York
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson
Yuma Art Center, Yuma, Arizona
The Ackland Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Princeton University Collection, Princeton, New Jersey

Selected public collections:

Allied Bank of Texas, Houston, Texas
A.T.&T., New York, New York
The Bank of New York, New York, New York
Canadian Petroleum Collection, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Cargill Incorporated, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Chemical Bank, New York, New York
Continental Illinois National Bank, Chicago, Illinois
E.F. Hutton, New York, New York
Emporia State University, Kansas
Ernst & Whinney, New York, New York
First Bank of Evanston, Illinois
F.M.C. Corporation, Chicago, Illinois
IBM, Stuttgart, Germany
The Kemper Group, Chicago, Illinois
LaSalle National Bank, Chicago, Illinois
Mr. And Mrs. William Janss, Sun Valley, Idaho
Marsh, McClellan, New York, New York
Mutual of New York, New York, New York
Northern Trust Company, Chicago, Il.
NYNEX, New York, New York
Otis Elevator Company, Connecticut
Owens - Illinois, Toledo, Ohio
Pacific Enterprises Oil Company of Dallas, Texas
Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison, New York, New York
Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, New Jersey
The St. Paul Companies, St. Paul, Minnesota
Sears, Roebuck & Company, Chicago, Illinois
Sonoita Enterprises, Tucson, Arizona
Stephens, Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas
Texaco, White Plains, New York
Texaco, London, England
Texaco, Kyoto, Japan
Tucson-Pima Library, Tucson, Arizona
U.S. Tobacco, Greenwich, Connecticut
West Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesota
United Airlines, Chicago, Illinois
Bank of America, San Francisco, California
Ashland Enterprises, Tucson, Arizona
Yellowstone National Park Headquarters, Yellowstone, Wyoming