Ian Cook RI RSW, born 1951

Born in Paisley, Cook trained at Glasgow School of Art in 1969-72 where he won the Hutchison Drawing Prize. Travelling Scholarships enabled him to travel to Spain and North Africa in 1984 and travel has remained an important inspiration for his work. Sketches and watercolours done while travelling provide raw material for large-scale compositions which range from directly figurative to semi-abstract, influenced by the shapes and colours of European modernism. He is particularly interested in the lives and culture of indigenous peoples, with past bodies of work focussing on Africa and the American West. Recently, he has made work inspired by trips to Central America.