Plein Air Art - Looking Back (Part 4) / May 17, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

The 19th century saw a flowering of plein air art in Europe and in this part of my blog-series on Plein Air Art - Looking Back, I had fun trying to select images that could celebrate this explosion of energies and talent. We owe a great deal to those artists as they broke with academic tradition and painted as their hearts dictated.

Plein Air Art - Looking Back (Part 3) / May 17, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

In Part 3 of Plein Air art - Looking Back, I follow the development of plein air art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe as so many artists paved the way for present-day interpretations of nature and the outdoors.

Plein Air Art - Looking Back (Part 2) / May 17, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Part 2 of a long look back at the heritage of landscape and plein air art that we artists enjoy today nd from which we can draw encouragement and inspiration, as well as instruction.

Plein Air Art - Looking Back (Part 1) / May 16, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

As plein air artists, we are standing on the shoulders of artists who were lovers and orbservers of nature from many centuries ago. This is a celebration of some of these artists in their depictions of the landscape.

How Artists' Work Evolves over the Years / April 24, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Does an artist remain faithful to early visions and inspirations for art creation over the passage of twenty-five years? Measuring my own evolution, I find that I have just moved in closer to look at the nature that surrounds us, to marvel at details that often get overlooked in our busy lives.

Gallery Space and an Artist's Presence / April 13, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Does artwork, hanging on gallery walls, confer a presence of the artist, the spirit of that person?

Opening a Silverpoint Show in Spain / April 2, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Opening Night: "Pensando en Miró: Drawings in Silver" by Jeannine Cook, Sa Tafona Gallery, Deia, Mallorca

The first guests walked into the gallery. How appropriate their timing! I was exhibiting in the beautiful mountainside village of Deia, Mallorca, at the Hotel Belmond La Residencia's Sa Tafona Gallery, and who should be the first arrivals but William, son of long-time famed Deia resident, Robert Graves, with his charming wife. What a wonderful augury!

Defining a "Chef d'Oeuvre" / March 26, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

What is defined generally as an artistic chef d'oeuvre or masterpiece, why and when?

Recently I was listening to a radio interview in France with the actress, Catherine Deneuve, just before the launch of her new film, "Sage Femme/the Midwife". The interviewer asked her if she though this film was a chef d'oeuvre. Her reply interested me because it does not just apply to the "Seventh Art" of films.

Silk / February 12, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Silk has always been my favourite material, sensuous to wear yet so practical and comfortable in all weathers. It is always beautiful, whether patterned, plain, embroidered or subtly woven with textures in it. Even its names - shantung, habutai, tussore, chiffon, taffeta, dupioni, tussah - sound exotic and alluring. One of my earliest connections with silk was the realisation that mulberry leaves, from a tree that I loved and knew well at my home in East Africa, were what feed the silk worms for 35 days, before they are ready to spin a cocoon with their continuous fine silken thread that eventually measures over a mile when it is carefully unwound, prior to being woven into cloth.

Reacting to Life Experiences as an Artist / February 5, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

I recently had an exchange of e-mails with a fellow artist friend, whose wife had suddenly become very ill. Both of us commented on the fact that there is such a change of optic when one is struck by serious family illness or some other type of trauma. Everything important comes back into sharp focus and the “small stuff” falls away.