Cole Gallery

Layne Cook

Layne Cook is a Pacific Northwest native, born in Seattle and raised in Portland, Oregon. She received a BA degree in art from the University of Washington in 1973.  Layne spent many years doing work other than art: a counselor at a residential treatment center for adolescent girls in Yakima, Washington, a remodeler of houses (6!), and many years as a kitchen designer in Bellevue, Washington.



In 2001, she and her husband quit their jobs to take a six-month driving trip around the U.S and Canada in a VW Eurovan. It was during this time that she made the decision to seriously pursue her passion for art in the form of painting. She has been actively painting and exhibiting since then, and now has her work in many private collections as well as in Harborview Hospital, Swedish Hospital, Hotel Max, International Kitchens, Ryan Swanson and Cleveland law firm, The Paramount Hotel, and other corporations and institutions. In 2007 she also began working with clay and has fallen in love with glazing. The end result has been a merging of the two mediums; her paints have taken on the depth of glazes and her glazing reveals her experience in paint.



Artist Statement:  As an art student in the early 70’s, I found that my interest lay in the applied arts, specifically textile printing and design. I did some painting, but often was at a loss for subject matter. Now, some 45 years later, the ideas flow faster than I can implement them; I like to think that my experience and broader outlook as an older person have contributed to this creative energy. I am fascinated by all aspects of painting; the power of a good composition, the role of light and shadows, the use of color and the value of restraint in using color. I enjoy painting all kinds of subjects, but favor the human form. Among the artists I admire are Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Edward Hopper, Fairfield Porter, and Richard Diebenkorn, as well as many painters of today. I delight in the process of working out every painting, and hope that some of that joy is conveyed to the viewer through my work.