David Cook | Earth Shaker

DAVID COOK Earth Shaker

DAVID COOK Earth Shaker 3–27 March 2021

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EARTH SHAKER Working in isolation has become normal for many people over the course of the last year.

However, for the artist David Cook, whose home and studio are perched on a remote stretch of North Sea coastline, nothing much has changed. Living in isolation Cook uses his immediate environment as the inspiration for his artwork, his deep familiarity unmediated by any other conversation. As the seasons change, so too does Cook’s subject matter as he charts his environment through the rhythms of the natural world. Winter and autumn provide the drama of violent seas and ever changing skies, nature hunkering down against all that the elements can throw. In the spring and summer months, regeneration leads to abundance and profusion as life and colour return to the Kincardineshire

countryside. For this exhibition, the product of three years’ hard work, Cook has chosen to focus his energies on the wild, seaside garden in front of his cottage. The fertile grassy acre between the house and the rocky coast is a wilderness garden, enlivened with flotsam sculpture, thrumming with life and brilliant in colour in the summer. Flowers and long grasses grow untamed, threatening to engulf his studio. His paintings are made in rich impasto of oil paint, with a joyous freedom. We welcome David Cook back to The Scottish Gallery for his fourth major solo presentation: Earth Shaker is a body of work of visionary intensity from an artist following his own untamed path.

Tommy Zyw, December 2020

4.9.18, oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm (detail) (cat. 41) 3

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I decided to concentrate on one subject for a long period of time, 2017 to 2020. I chose the garden.

When spring arrives, the garden bursts into life, as do I, a relief from long dark winters. Spring to late summer is always a productive time for me.

I wanted to show the garden bursting into life.

The colour, the energy.

David Cook, November 2020

David Cook at his home, Seagreens, September 2020 5

Cat. 1

Autumn I, 2018 oil on board, 41 x 30.5 cm 6

Cat. 2

Cat. 3

Flower Study II, 2019 oil on board, 23 x 20.5 cm

Flower Study I, 2019 oil on board, 23 x 20.5cm 7

Cat. 4

February VII, 2019 oil on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cm 8

Cat. 5

February V, 2019 oil on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cm 9

Cat. 6

February II, 2020 oil on board, 30.5 x 25.5 cm 10

Cat. 7

Daisies, 2018 oil on canvas board, 31 x 26 cm 11

Cat. 8

Autumn IV, 2018 oil on board, 40 x 30.5 cm 12

Cat. 9

February III, 2020 oil on board, 30.5 x 25.5 cm 13

Cat. 10

February VIII, 2019 oil on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cm 14

Cat. 11

Flower Study III, 2019 oil on board, 22.5 x 20.5 cm 15

Cat. 12

Autumn II, 2018 oil on board, 40 x 30.5 cm 16

Cat. 13

Flower Study IV, 2019 oil on board, 22.5 x 20.5cm 17

Cat. 14

Flower Study V, 2019 oil on board, 33 x 30.5 cm 18

Cat. 15

February I, 2020 oil on board, 30.5 x 25.5 cm 19

Cat. 16

Autumn III, 2018 oil on board, 40 x 30.5 cm 20

Cat. 17

Flower Study, 2020 oil on board, 35.5 x 30.5 cm 21

Cat. 18

February IV, 2020 oil on board, 30.5 x 25.5 cm 22

Cat. 19

February VI, 2019 oil on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cm 23

Cat. 20

Evening, 3.3.20 oil on canvas, 90.5 x 80.5 cm 24

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Cat. 21

26.10.19 oil on canvas, 80 x 71 cm 26

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Cat. 22

25.10.19 oil on canvas, 90.5 x 80 cm 28

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Cat. 23

29.8.20 oil on canvas, 80.5 x 70.5 cm 30

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Cat. 24

16.4.20 oil on canvas, 81 x 90 cm 32

Cat. 25

23.4.20 oil on canvas, 90.5 x 80 cm 33

Cat. 26

9.4.20 oil on canvas, 100 x 121 cm 34

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Cat. 27

14.8.20 oil on canvas, 121 x 120 cm 36

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Cat. 28

14.7.20 oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm 38

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Cat. 29

21.7.20 oil on canvas, 100 x 121 cm 40

41

Cat. 30

21.6.20 oil on canvas, 121 x 120 cm 42

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Cat. 31

25.5.20 oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm 44

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Cat. 32

16.9.18 oil on canvas, 100 x 101 cm 46

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Cat. 33

2.3.20 oil on canvas, 100 x 124 cm 48

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Cat. 34

3.3.20 oil on canvas, 100.5 x 120.5 cm 50

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Cat. 35

25.2.20 oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm 52

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Cat. 36

29.8.19 oil on canvas, 100 x 121 cm 54

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Cat. 37

16.6.19 oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm 56

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Cat. 38

6.5.20 oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm 58

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Cat. 39

25.8.18 oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm 60

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Cat. 40

20.6.18 oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm 62

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Cat. 41

4.9.18 oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm 64

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DAVID MACKIE COOK 1957

Born in Dunfermline Lives and works in Kincardineshire

Education 1973–77 Apprenticeship as bricklayer in Kirkcaldy 1979–84 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Selected Exhibitions 2021 Earth Shaker, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2018 Seagreens Prospect, Fraser Gallery, St Andrews 2017 Change, Ripeness and Decay, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2014 Savage Tranquillity, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2012 Seagreens Recollections, Fraser Gallery, St Andrews 2009 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2007 Montrose Art Gallery and Museum

Art Extraordinary, Pittenweem 2000 David Cook and L.S. Lowry, The Weem Gallery, Pittenweem 1999 Opening Exhibition, The Weem Gallery, Pittenweem

Queens Gallery, Aberdeen 1987 Flaxman Gallery, London 1986 Artspace, Aberdeen 1982 Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Selected Collections Art in Healthcare City of Edinburgh Council Dundee Art Gallery Dunfermline District Museum Glasgow Museums Resource Centre Kirkcaldy Art Museum and Art Gallery

Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow Knysna Fine Art, South Africa Scottish Arts Council Collection University of Dundee University of Warwick Private collections worldwide

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David Cook at his home, Seagreens, September 2020 67

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition David Cook EARTH SHAKER 3–27 March 2021 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/davidcook ISBN: 978 912900 31 2 Designed by Kenneth Gray Photography by John McKenzie Printed by J Thomson Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

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