Beck's Funeral Home

Born in Sheffield in 1929 and raised in Stoke-on-Trent, John Cooke used his period of national service in the RAF to search out evening classes at art schools wherever he was stationed. Demobbed in 1949, he enrolled in Stoke College of Art where he developed his meticulous technique and distinctive style. His earliest commissions included posters for the Post Office and London Transport, followed by book covers and illustrations for publishers including Penguin Books, Readers Digest and Oxford University Press. In 1976 he moved from Sussex to the cottage in Dent where he would spend the rest of his life. He is estimated to have made nearly 500 paintings of Dentdale in his 42 years there. His new home contained an outbuilding originally used for manufacturing the 'Dentonian' bicycle before the First World War, and this became his studio and gallery. In 1987 Batsford published a collection of Mr Cooke's waterscapes, recognising his particular knack for capturing the life and movement of the becks and rivers of the dales in all seasons. Two additional books followed, called Paintings of the Lake District and Dentdale and Paintings and Drawings. Although best known for his realistic landscapes, Mr Cooke continued to experiment with new media and styles of art, including abstracts, collages and computer imagery. Mr Cooke's output attracted collectors from all over the world and he had exhibitions in San Francisco, Dubai and Italy as well as annual shows in some of London’s most prestigious galleries, patronised by buyers from the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. His work is represented in the permanent collections of Stoke City Art Gallery, the Museum and Art Gallery at St Peter Port, Guernsey, and the International Bridgeman Art Library To his friends, neighbours and collectors, Mr Cooke was known as a modest, gentle, quietly-spoken man who wore his celebrity lightly. He was a valued tenor in Dentdale Choir and a stalwart supporter of Dent CE Primary School and until well into his 80s he could be spotted walking or cycling the by... (The Westmorland Gazette)