Alexandra Cook

As an artist I aspire to bring colorful glimpses of other worlds and other times to life.
I like creating figurative story-telling works reminding illustrations from books never written or still images from non-existing films. I also enjoy painting lanscapes, still life, portraits, animals and abstract pictures. I use wide range of media (soft & oil pastels, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, pencils, digital, photography, textile, found objects) and their combination.

My artworks will take you on a journey to distant and mysterious lands where no one has been before. I love things ethnic, period, retro, unusual, elegant, sophisticated, exotic, nostalgic, intricate, old, traditional, vintage, anything which give you that "long ago and far away" or "lost in time and space" feeling.

The subject of my paintings often lies somewhere in between the existing world and imaginary realms. Even if I am inspired originally by trees in a local park I like to bring them to life as colorful glimpses of other worlds existing only in my imagination. I am also finding my inspiration in the beauty and mystery of nature, human made artifacts, my favorite music, poetry and stories, my former planetary science/geography work and my journeys to places like full of crystals caves in Turkmenia and hot beaches of Thailand, stormy White sea and idyllic Carpathians, awesome Grand Canyon and beautiful Hawaii, weathered Northern Russian villages and underwater coral forests, picturesque British countryside and busy Paris, sky scraping New York and snow covered plains of Central Asia...

I was born in Moscow in 1970s. Always interested in science, ancient cultures, ethnography, art of imagination, science fiction and fantasy literature I followed a science career and graduated from Geographical Department of Moscow State University. For the next six years I has been working as a young scientist in the Laboratory of the Comparative Planetology in the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Moscow. I had a number of publications in Russian and English and participated in conferences in Moscow and Houston. As a result of this work Idefended a dissertation about dunes and channels of Mars. I also traveled Earth widely making use of my sketch book and camera.

I have been drawing and painting since childhood. I have been taking private lessons and attending workshops in Russia, USA and UK. Working in the planetary science gave me knowledge about landscapes of different planets as well as experience with software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Bryce, 3D Studio. All this is proving to be very useful for an artist.

In 2003 me with my husband and children settled in England. Since then I has been participating in many art exhibitions (in Nottingham, Beeston, Long Eaton, Eastwood, Wollaton, Draycott, Patchings Art Center and Buxton) where so far earned nine awards (including W.S.Holbrook first prize), and I also had three personal shows. I like working on wide range of challenging subjects. I belonged to the Nottingham Society of Artists, the Independent Artists Group and Long Eaton and District Art Club. Several of my artworks has been published in a Russian newspaper and an American magazine, many are in private collections in Russia, Norway, Italy, Ireland, France, Romania, USA, UK, Switzerland and other countries.

In 2007me and my family have moved to picturesque Newtown in Wales. I am working hard on constantly improuving my work inspired by best in present and past of the art world.