User:Traceablecreations/Jeannine Cook

Jeannine Cook Jeannine Cook is a contemporary silverpoint and watercolor artist. She was born in Nairobi, Kenya and currently lives in coastal Georgia, United States.

Background

Cook was born in Nairobi, Kenya and grew up in Northern Tanzania. She obtained degrees from the Universities of Lille and the Sorbonnne (1960s) and the Ecole Française des Attachés de Presse, France (1970). She married scientist Albert Rundle Cook and moved to New York in 1970. A non-fiction writer, she has published articles and books on subjects ranging from history to silverpoint drawing. In addition to watercolor painting, she has specialized in silverpoint, drawing with a silver stylus on a prepared surface. A lecturer on silverpoint's history and techniques for museums and universities in the South, she also helped curate the 2009 Evansville Museum of Art "Luster of Silver" exhibition.

Style

Jeannine Cook was an early protagonist in the 1980s revival of silverpoint, a lustrous and intimate drawing medium dating from late Gothic/early Renaissance times in Europe and used by such artists as Leonardi da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer and Sandro Botticelli. Whilst many contemporary silverpoint artists remain true to the soft tonalities of traditional silverpoint, Cook has achieved a greater variety of tonal effects, often with an intensity of darks comparable to graphite. She frequently combines gold, copper, watercolor, thread or even photographs with silver in drawings that range from figurative to abstract. Much of her silverpoint work is executed plein air. She frequently uses this work to advocate for environmental causes, often as a result of artist residencies awarded by federal, state or private parks and preserves in the South East (such as the Sapelo Island Estuarine Research Reserve, Givhans Ferry State Park, South Carolina, or Spring Island, South Carolina). A residency at Les Amis de la Grande Vigne, Dinan, France, also provided an important backdrop to her work. Her frequent visits to Spain, Italy and France are also rich sources for her art.

Cook's work is usually executed on a small scale, since silverpoint drawing is labor-intensive and intimate. Her work is represented in many public collections, including those of New Hall Women's Art Collection at Cambridge University, England, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA, Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL, Consell de Mallorca, Balearics Islands Government, Spain, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, Dr. Shirley A. Sherwood Collection, London, England, Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, Evansville, IN, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN and Jacksonville, FL, Fulton County Arts Council and many others. Notable corporate collections which have acquired her work include the Alabama Power Company, Birmingham, AL, Legion Paper Company, New York, Memorial University Medical Center, Savannah, GA and the Cambridge Health Alliance, MA.

References

• ArtDaily.org, June 15, 2009, “Evansville Museum presents a survey of Contemporary Silverpoint Drawings”
• Camhy, Sherry, August 2007, “Silverpoint: Old Medium, New Art”, FineArtConnoisseur, “Sparkling Magic Wand”, Spring 2007, Linea – Journal of the Art Students League of NY
• Cook, Jeannine, June 2006, “Drawing with Silver”, The Drawing Board, & September 2004, The Artist’s Magazine
• Cook, Jeannine, 1990, “Fort King George: Step One to Statehood”, Darien Press, GA
• Cook, Jeannine, (editor), 1992, “Columbus and the Land of Ayllón: The Exploration and Settlement of the Southeast”, Darien Press, GA
• Doherty, M. Stephen, August 2000, "The Shimmer of Silverpoint Drawings”, American Artist
• Hersh, Allison, August 31, 2003, “Silver Splendor”, Savannah Morning News
• Montoya, Orlando, Sept. 12, 2003, “Silverpoint”, Georgia Public Radio
• McCullough, Holly Koons, summer 2006, “The Luster of Silver”, Telfair Museums, Savannah
• National Public Radio, September 7, 2000, Shreveport, LA, “Silverpoint Drawing”
• Rutherford, Tim A., September 2003, Coastal Antiques & Art, “Jeannine Cook’s silverpoint…”
• Sammons, Tania, May-June 2004, Savannah Magazine, “Artist Jeannine Cook”
• Streetman, John & O’Hern, John, Summer 2009, “The Luster of Silver”, Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville
• Women’s Caucus for the Arts – DC, September 2009, “From a Woman’s Perspective”

External links

• International Silverpoint Archives – Jeannine Cook
• Jeannine Cook’s website
• Jeannine Cook’s blog
• SilverpointWeb.com – Jeannine Cook
• The Art List, November 2008, “Artist of the Month – Jeannine Cook”
• Women’s Caucus for Art, September 2010, “Artist of the Month – Jeannine Cook”