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W Donald “Don” Cooke is a physician in Durango, Colorado, who has been painting seriously since 1997. He began painting in oil, and had some early coaching by Durango artist Mike Desatnick. In 1999, he took a workshop with Albert Handell in Taos, New Mexico, and became interested in pastel as a medium. He works primarily outside, en plein air, but also continues studio work, particularly in figure painting and portraiture. Most of his landscape paintings are completed in pastel or oil on site and the field studies are often used for larger studio paintings. Don has studied at the Scottsdale Artists School with Leslie B DeMille and Matt Smith. He has also attended workshops in New York City, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque.
Don’s work has appeared in many juried shows. His work has been juried into the International Association of Pastel Societies show in Santa Fe in 2001. He won both the People’s Choice award and the Juror’s award at the New Mexico Pastel Society show in 2002. He has also exhibited with the Four Corners Plein Air Painters. At the show in Farmington in March of 2005, he won the Juror’s award, the Award of Excellence, and People’s choice. At Fort Lewis College in November 2005, he won the Best in Show Award. His painting “Evening on the Animas” was selected as the La Plata Open Space Conservatory poster in 2006. His work was also juried into the Scottsdale Artists School Best and Brightest show in 2010, the Randy Higbee gallery Six Squared show in December 2017 and the NM Pastel Society 27th National Show in 2019. He served as juror in 2017 for a plein air show at the Durango Arts Center. Don has also worked with Isabelle Roche of Henri Roche pastels in Paris, France, to design a palette for the Southwest landscape. He uses pastels from many manufacturers but prefers Henri Roche, Terry Ludwig, Unison, and Sennelier. Don describes himself as a colorist, but he also finds that the muted grays on the right side of the palette set the stage for the colors.
Pastel palette for plein air work.
ABOUT PASTEL
As you can see from the my pastel palette, pastels are little chunks of pigment in a binder. Color mixing differs from oil painting where pigments are mixed on a palette and applied to the support. With pastels, color mixing is done directly on the support by layering the colors on top of one another using various pressures and getting the right “touch”. I use sanded papers such as UArt that can take dozens of layers of pastel before losing their “tooth”.
When I began in pastel 20 years ago, the pastel world was smaller. At my first meeting of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) in Santa Fe in 2001 there were perhaps 300 attendees. At the meeting in Albuquerque in 2017, it seems that the amount of attendees has more than doubled. The increased interest in this medium has brought with it many new artists of incredible talent and commitment from all over the world. With that, styles have evolved. I notice a tendency toward tighter renderings, blended pigment and hyper-realistic interpretations using the pastel medium. While I appreciate the artistic talent that leads in this direction, I prefer to use chunks of color in a loose interpretation of the subject. I like to see a painting that screams “pastel!” when you see it. This is what I try to achieve in my painting.
ABOUT FRAMING
Pastels, like watercolors, need to be displayed under glass. The painting surface also needs to be set back in the frame to avoid actually touching the glass surface. Using a mat is one way to accomplish this, but I prefer using plastic spacers 1/8” thick attached to the glass surface. I use high quality frames sourced from King of Frame in California or from Manny’s Frames in Denver Colorado. I always use museum glass for framing which is expensive but by far the best glazing for use with pastels. The plein air frames are often black, but gold or silver can fit with certain subjects depending on the taste of the buyer. I would generally prefer to send purchased paintings as framed. I can send photos of the framed paintings to any interested buyers, and frames can often be interchangeble. If you would prefer to frame them yourself , I can ship the painting itself, but this can be risky in terms of shipping damage. Shipping charges would vary depending on the locale. At this time, international purchases are probably not feasible.