Awwww, Beryl Cook dies

Hi Osso. I always liked her work.

oh my.

You know. I am truly not a big fan of paintings.
There have been very few, and I look at a lot.. but there have been very few that I like, would love to look at again, or consider owning.

Infact, there is only one painting I would ever consider owning and it was in the LBJ museum when I was young.. I think...
Maybe it was in Albuquerque some where acutally.. seem to remember it at a much older age. Any how.
It was a woman on the end of a hotel bed holding a crying infant, and she was crying herself.
I remember looking at that and absolutely understanding her tears, knowing the brand of hotel room she was in and wondering what her husband did to her.
No . there was no husband in the photo.. that is just where my mind took me.

I really wanted that painting.
In fact I still do. I can still see the brush strokes in my mind that made up the babies hair, the mothers breast and tears.

I dont like paintings.

I LOVE this womans work.

I can see these people on the street all the time.
I can hear the little dogs barking...I know of a dance group that looks like some of the pictures she has painted.

Wow.. i love it.

Her work is very popular here. A great loss to the community down in the West Country.

Really? Not even Vermeer or Manet? I could picnic in front of many a painting and feel the view was excellent. It must be an inner soul thing. I can't sit though a ballet without squirming, but I can stare at a painting for same amount of time and feel transported.

In the case of Cook, I find her works fun, but I tend to see them as big illustrations. I always think they should be on birthday cards for people of a certain age. I often get little lines of cartoon dialogue running in my head with I see her work. It's the art snob in me. I often feel the same about Botero, so it's not a sexist thing.

It's always a little extra sad when any artist dies. It's like reading a great book, coming to the last chapter and realizing it's the end of the characters.

Cartoon dialogs..

HA!
that is exactly what I have when I looked at her work.
And I too thought of a post card, a coffee table book with jokes about aging, being over weight, and little yappy dogs.
Almost like that older hallmark woman/cartoon .

And that is what I liked about it.

I reallllly dont like paintings. They bore me sometimes.
There are some that I enjoy looking at, but for example, I would never..EVER go to an art museum because looking at paintings sounds like fun.
It just doesnt appeal to me.

Photographs?
If they are done right.. I love.
Sadly, most of the popular photographers I dont like.
I like some of Annie Liebovitzzeshhtizz.. how ever you spell her name..
But the can not look like a vogue commercial.
I love , love , love the one she did of the queen stripped of her crown, her jewels and her makeup. She put her in a stark black gown, with nothing to adorn her and took her photograph.

I love it.

She also did one of a piano player standing on his piano, and stood really far back so that him and his piano were frammed in the photo by her equipment, her backdrop and a small piece of her lighting.
Almost like it was a mistake that she just fell in love with.

THAT.. I love.

Painting? Nah. The artist has to have something realllly unique for me to catch their drift with a painting. I appreciate painting for the complex piece of work it is though. Painters have a knack for quality, patience and an eye I will never own or understand. But Im not a huge fan

Shewolfnm, that's exactly how I feel about photographs! Funny how different we all are, eh?

I feel the same way about paintings in that I'm often disappointed - they don't reach something in me. When Osso, Thomas and I were touring Santa Fe galleries, I only saw one or two I thought were worth hanging in my home.

But I love to paint as much as you love to photograph, I reckon. And I love looking at friends' work. I like the personal shots, even if it's of someone's cabin door. If it hits me, I like it. Usually, though, they're not too evocative for me.

Most photographs and paintings are too commercialized for me.

I love Grandma Moses' work, for example. And Edward Hopper. Totally bored by Georgia O'Keeffe.

And love an impressionist by the name of Frederic Balzac. Hard to find any of his stuff because he died in the Franco-Prussian war at 29. And I adore Modigliani. Love his colours, his energy, and his moods.

oh dear

I love Beryl Cook's work. There are a few characters that look so much like people I know that I can almost hear their voices when I look at her paintings. I have a couple of books of collected works of hers. I keep them at the hamburgers', so I always have something to relax with when I'm visiting there. I see different things each time I look at the works.

There's one that always makes me think of Bernie, Lola, Mathos and Spendius in the early days.

On the Santa Fe galleries, I also saw only one painting that I'd say I liked at all. Luckily, the seeing of the galleries was fun anyway. Dys said we shoulda gone to upper Canyon Road. Oh well.

On Beryl Cook, I didn't know she was a painter for a long time. I've only seen her work in cards (stationery) and do also think of it as more illustration than painting - but ne'er mind all that. I have been quite moved by a few of the cards relating to people or situations I felt close to and framed a couple of them sometime back when...

Sort of a female Norman Rockwell.

Hey Hey

On the local news tonite it was reported...

"Beryl Cook was colourful, flambuoyant and downright daft…. "



They were thinking of what memorial to give her in Plymouth and she was quoted about her painting saying: "There's no message - just enjoy yourself whilst you can"

Quite a character.

Bless her heart.. and Rest in Peace.

I always thought it would have been great to meet her when she was still a landlady.

even a royal corgy and the loyal servant didn't escape beryl .




beryl cook just packed up her brushes and canvas and continues to amuse someone , somewhere !

see her website here :

BERYL COOK

i have one of her two books out at least once every other week - always makes me smile and laugh !

Hamburger, I saw that when I was looking up the card of two women who just got back from Italy, shown fondly clutching eggplants... Never found the eggplant card, but did get a corgi - queen painting as a reward...