Cook's recent fine art honors include the prestigious Silver Star Award from the National Watercolor Society's 93rd Annual Juried Competition in 2013. His winning entry, Royal Street Jazz, is one of several digital images/turned paintings inspired by one of Cook's evening walks in the New Orleans French Quarter. Twilight on Bourbon won Best of Show at Brownwood's Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit, as well as Langdon Center's Rio Brazos Show in Granbury. Lake Granbury Art Association's 2013 Fall Festival of Art honored Cook with the Award of Excellence for a third New Orleans-inspired watercolor painting, Alley Cat.
"Bob is that happy combination of technically adept architectural illustrator and free spirit," said Mary Stitt, exhibit co-chair of Fort Worth-based Society of Watercolor Artists. "This enables him to paint subjects with his well-honed technique of illustration and his flair for punching up his subject matter with lovely color and lively themes. Although he frequently includes buildings as part of his paintings, they clearly are much more studies of a moment in time rather than a technical rendering of walls and windows," Stitt said. "He's a very detail-oriented man with a lively and fun-loving personality which gives that "je ne sais quoi" verve and vitality to his subjects. This makes them works of art rather than the more staid renderings required to hang on boardroom walls."
Cook started drawing when he was 6 years old. "One of the first ones I did was a pencil drawing of my granddad's rifle," he recalled. "I would draw anything, even jars in the kitchen cabinet. In the late "40s and "50s when we didn't have a television, we used to draw."
He started painting when he was 12. While delivering newspapers for the Kansas City Star, the young artist met an illustrator named Jules Scheffer, who is now famous for his prints and production techniques. After seeing Cook's art, Scheffer offered to give him a job after high school graduation. "He took it very seriously, even though I was a kid," Cook said. "He looked at my portfolio and said, "I'll tell you what, you come back when you're 18 years old and I'll give you a job." He hired me, and it was unreal. I worked as an apprentice, easy jobs, really, but by the time I was 21, I was the assistant art director at Scheffer Studio. By the time I was 24, I was the art director."
This was long before computer-generated architectural renderings. The experiences learned from hand painting realistic renderings prepared Cook for a successful career as an employee, and eventually as owner and president at Prelim, Inc., a large architectural illustration firm in Dallas.
During 30 years as a professional illustrator, Cook produced more than 13,500 projects. His renderings have been shown at the Chicago Art Institute, the Japanese Architectural Renderers Association and the American Society of Architectural Perspectivists.
Cook retired five years ago to focus on his watercolors. "Computers had pretty much taken over the architectural illustrations," he said.
Cook uses an English opaque watercolor called Gouache that has white added to it. "With watercolor, there's no white. All the white that's used is the white paper color or board showing through the transparent pigment," he explained. "The challenge is to plan your whites before you start. Watercolor is the hardest media to master. You can just paint over a color with oil painting until you get it right, but with watercolor, you've got to put it down one time and leave it. You can't lighten anything any lighter than it is, without wiping it off."
Cook says he is influenced most by realist painter Andrew Wyeth. "I love the feel of his work. He uses an old-style media, an opaque watercolor with egg whites in it," he said.
Bob's wife, Carol Bryan Cook, has authored five books of poetry and one book of short stories, along with hundreds of articles. Her fifth book of poetry, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, was released in March.
Bob's art has been collected by Texas Instruments, Champlain Oil Co., the National Corvette Museum, the Baptist Convention and the City of Granbury, as well as many individuals. He's also done work for Disney.
"I love what I do," Cook said. "The people who buy my paintings have an emotional connection to them, something that triggers a past thought, a place they've been … memories."| by Gail Bennison |
You will find Cook's paintings at Your Private Collection on the Square in Granbury.
106 N. Houston
Granbury, Texas 76048
817.579.7733