Spiders Prey Painting

Born Norwich, England. Lorraine Cooke is a professional artist and curator; she has exhibited widely throughout the UK and internationally. Her work is an exploration of contemporary landscape painting. She graduated from Norwich school of Art and Design with a BA (hons) in Fine Art in 2003 and Northampton University with an MA in Fine Art in 2011. Cooke works between Norwich and Paphos (Cyprus.) She is currently shortlisted for the Beep Painting biennial 2022. Her work and writings have been featured in numerous publications. She curated the 'Rebirth' exhibition at Art1821 (an international exhibition in collaboration with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.) She facilitated a number of projects for the Paphos ‘European Capital of Culture 2017’ programme and was awarded the Bonarota prize for painting. Cooke is noted as a Saatchi Art ‘Artist of recognition’ with works included in the ‘Inspired by Miro’ Saatchi Collection and the 'Spectacular Abstracts' Artzine collection. She was awarded the AA2A 'Artist of the year' prize (Artists Access to Art school, national UK residency scheme) following a residency at Norwich University of the Arts. She is an AA2A Engage Member (active role model for students, providing insights into professional life as an artist outside UK universities.) Personal Statement: The current exploration of what is best described as inscape draws upon the history of landscape genre in painting and is an attempt to rationalize the landscape in which I find myself. I use landscape in the broadest sense of the word, not excluding the landscape of the mind. “ Nature is the biggest of the big pictures. We worship and loathe it, sanctify and destroy it… Subject of both science and art, the landscape functions as a mirror and a lens; in it we see the space we occupy and ourselves as we occupy it. And have consistently sought to connect in some level with the landscape.” Recent works demonstrate my interest in calligraphic line and the fundamental concerns of colour, shape and pictorial rhythm in the activity of painting. (Brian Wallis- Land and Environmental Art.)