Alexandra Cook Biography

Alexandra Cook was born in Moscow. Always fascinated by the concept of mysterious lands, real and imaginary, separated from us by immense distance in space or time, she developed interest in science, ancient cultures, ethnography, art of imagination, science fiction and fantasy. Following a science career she graduated from Geographical Department of Moscow State University. For the next six years Alexandra has been working as a young scientist in the Laboratory of the Comparative Planetology in the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Moscow. She had a number of publications in Russian and English and participated in conferences in Moscow and Houston. As a result of this work she defended a dissertation about dunes and channels of Mars. She also traveled Earth widely making use of her sketch book and camera.

Alexandra has been drawing and painting since childhood. She has been taking private lessons and attending workshops in Russia, USA and UK. Working in the planetary science gave Alexandra 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 Alexandra with her husband and children settled in England. Here she has been participating in many art exhibitions (in Nottingham, Beeston, Long Eaton, Eastwood, Wollaton, Draycott, Patchings Art Center and Buxton) where earned nine awards (including W.S.Holbrook first prize), and she also had three personal shows. Living in the Midlands, she was a member of the Nottingham Society of Artists and the Long Eaton and District Art Club. Several of Alexandra's 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 2007 Alexandra and her family have moved to picturesque Newtown in Wales. Currently she enjoys using and mixing various media (e.g. acrylic, oil, pastel, oil, watercolour, photography, digital, found objects) and likes working on wide range of challenging subjects. Living car-free in a rural area, Alexandra can only display and sell her artwork online at the moment. She is working hard on constantly improving her work inspired by best in present and past of the art world.

Web: linandara.com

Artist's Statement

I'm a dreamer. I like creating story-telling works reminding illustrations from books never written or still images from non-existing films. Even if I am painting "ordinary" landscapes, still life, portraits, animals or abstract pictures I like to add to them some colorful glimpses of other worlds existing only in my imagination. I love rich color and bold compositions. I'm not interested in following up a successful painting with some similar work, instead I always challenging myself to do one of the kind pieces using different combination of media and subjects. Always experimenting and finding new exciting possibilities. I love playing with wide range of media (soft & oil pastels, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, pencils, digital, photography, textile, found objects) and their combination. I believe that good art enriches artist's and viewer's souls and that is the ultimate goal of my work. Being stay-at-home mum, living in a rural area of Wales as a member of an environmentally friendly car-free family poses some challenges. Plus there is always a feeling of deep alienation as I was born far away (in Moscow) from where I live now, no friends or relatives nearby and not much in common with most locals. I am really grateful to all people who buy my work or just send kind or useful comments as they enable me to carry on doing what I love. Per aspera ad astra - Post tenebras lux