Ed Cook gets down to the details with miniature paintings
When an unsuspecting stranger asks Ed Cook what he does for a living, Cook likes to answer that he “paints a little.”
Of course those who know the Hoffman Estates man would recognize the response as one of Cook’s many puns. What the wordplay actually means is the 63-year-old Cook paints miniature art, usually on a canvas measuring 2 3/4 by 4 1/8 inches.
Cook also likes to tell people that he’ll “never make it big in the art world.” Another quip, referring to the size of his work. In reality, Cook’s creations have received critical acclaim in the United States and abroad, where collectors pay $1,000 and up for the tiny paintings.
Cook has made it big.
Sue Burton, president of the Hilliard Society of Miniaturists in Wells, England, where Cook will exhibit some of his works this summer, calls his work “quite good.”
The intricacy of Cook’s work places him in the same league with other renowned American miniaturists who belong to the exclusive society, named for miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, court painter to England’s Queen Elizabeth and King James I in the late 1500s, Burton said.
His achievements also have gained him membership in the Miniature Artists of America, and his paintings belong to collectors in England, Brazil and France. Last fall, Cook was one of 37 American miniaturists selected to exhibit works on the 100th anniversary of the Royal Miniature Society in London.
Cook’s almost overnight success came about 13 years ago when he made the switch from larger, more conventional size paintings to miniatures.
“After that, he seemed to become sold out at all of the shows he attended,” said Bruce Hubbard, an art collector from Naperville who has purchased about 10 of Cook’s works. “It’s been fun to watch his career.”
“It seemed to be that detailed things were always part of my nature,” Cook said. “As I began painting, detail translated into the type of pictures I was doing.”
As a boy growing up in Boise, Idaho, Cook enjoyed art and even told himself that one day he would become a professional artist.
Looking back at his earliest attempts at art–circa grade school–Cook admits that things didn’t look that promising for an art career.
“This looks like a kid’s painting,” said Cook, pointing to his 2nd-grade rendering of a firetruck, one of several works saved by his mother.
But Cook kept plugging away, and eventually he began to show promise. “By 5th grade, it was really starting to happen,” he said.
As Cook prepared to enter 7th grade, his family moved to Grand Island, Neb. At his new school, his devotion to precision began to develop. “I copied a drawing of a skeleton from a book so well, the teacher thought I traced it and failed me,” he said.
At the end of World War II, the family relocated to Garfield, N.J., where he attended high school and where he met his future wife, Janice, the person who would become his greatest source of moral support.
After graduating in 1951, Cook went into the Army, where he spent three years. The next spring, he married Janice, started working on a printing press at Deluxe Check Printers and began to raise a family. (He and Janice have three adult children: Lauren Cardelli of Batavia; Glenn of Eureka, Calif.; and Alisa Cook of Tucson.)
Even with all of his responsibilities, Cook found time to paint for his own enjoyment. He also improved his talent, although he can look back and notice that some of the pieces from his 20s were a bit rough, lacking perspective and other important elements.
From 1972 to 1979, Cook was employed in management at Deluxe, and the family moved around the country a few times. In 1980, Cook’s personal outlook at his workplace of 30 years decidedly took a turn, after some changes in his job left Cook unhappy. It was time for a change. Cook thought of turning to art in hopes of realizing the dream he held since childhood.
But what would his wife think about his quitting his livelihood to make a living creating art? A risky proposition indeed.
Ed and Janice sat down and agreed that he would begin painting, show his pieces and see if they would sell. If after five years the painting became successful, he could quit the job.
“It was quite a change in his life. But he’s had such a wonderful talent. I knew it was something he could do,” Janice said. “Things just took off.”
Well, sort of.
During that period of speculation, Cook began by creating larger pieces, but in 1983, he decided he wanted to do something special for Janice’s dollhouse and turned out his first miniature.
About the same time, a friend looked at the small painting and told Cook he should be in miniatures. “I was hooked. It was my niche,” Cook said.
He quit his job in December 1986 and began his new direction, painting mostly rural scenes, such as old barns and landscapes.
His favorite is of a church tower he painted this year. Called “A Memory from My Youth,” it depicts a limestone church tower set against a purplish sky. Cook first saw the tower in England in the spring of 1954. “It took me 42 years to paint it,” he said.
For Cook, completing a miniature painting involves a number of steps. Selecting from his collection of color snapshots he continues to amass, Cook begins by taping the photo of his next project on the drawing board in his studio, located in the lower level of his home.
An acid-free canvas is fastened to the board, which contains permanent fixtures like a picture of Janice and a few of his favorite Bible verses. “I keep her in front of me because she’s been such an inspiration. I keep (the verses) there to remind me where my talent comes from,” he said.
Next, an outline of the subject is penciled onto the canvas, which is bordered off with masking tape at 2 3/4 by 4 1/8 inches. Then the real work begins.
When Cook finally begins this painting, he will put on a pair of magnifying glasses that will increase his vision 1 1/2 times, just enough to prevent eye strain. He then will get out his set of sable brushes and turn on the adjustable-arm lamp over his board.
It may come as a surprise to some, but Cook uses some rather large brushes in his work–up to a size 12 for rough washes. There are some that are very small, like the size 0000.
Cook mostly uses acrylic paint, which, when dry, is impervious to water. It also allows him to create layers, which then reflect light through the paint and yield a brighter appearance. He sometimes uses tempera or oils.
The techniques used by Cook are all self-taught. “I have had no formal training, other than I like to read,” he said, pointing to his collection of art, airplane and gun books in his slightly cluttered workspace. “I learned to understand what I was working with.”
Mostly, though, Cook attributes his success to a more divine power. “God gave me this talent,” said Cook, who has fashioned a fish-shaped logo, a Christian symbol, out of his last name.
The amount of time Cook spends on a painting depends on the detail. One of his earlier, award-winning still-lifes, called “Blue and Gold,” is an interior barn scene featuring a pot on a bale of hay next to a weathered wooden post. Painting the bale took three days alone; the whole project was completed in a week.
In 1995, Cook completed 18 miniatures. His total body of work numbers more than 180.
While he usually works eight hours a day, “just like a regular job,” he does not try to crank them out just for the sake of making a buck.
“I made up my mind that I will not sacrifice quality for quantity,” said Cook, who is able to augment his art income with retirement benefits. “I knew I would never be known as the most prolific artist, but I wanted to become one of the best miniaturists.”
He appears to be on his way.
He belongs to the exclusive Whiskey Painters of America, a group loosely headquartered in Ohio, which honors the work of miniaturists. To become one of the group’s 100 members, which is its limit, a person has to be recommended by a current member. One notorious activity of the Whiskey Painters happens when members get together in their favorite pub, discuss art and paint miniature watercolors, dipping their brushes in their favorite beverage. Cook said his drink of choice is water.
About 10 years ago, Harris Peel, a Vermont art dealer, heard about Cook and looked at some of the work. Impressed by what he saw, Peel started selling Cook’s miniatures in his Peel Gallery of Fine Art in Danby, Vt., and has sold several since that time.
Peel, who opened the gallery 21 years ago, calls Cook’s work “unique. We don’t have anyone who does miniature acrylic watercolors.”
Other galleries that sell Cook’s work are the River Gallery in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the Bensen Gallery of Fine Art in Ruidoso, N.M. He is not represented by any local galleries.
What impresses people about Cook’s pieces is the realism rendered by the detail. “Many of them look just like photos,” Peel said.
In fact, Cook remembers listening to two judges at a show. One judge asked the other why he didn’t examine Cook’s entries, and the other one replied: “Why would I want to look at photos?”
Success aside, Cook remains in good humor–hence the puns–appreciative of his good fortune and, most of all, humble.
“I may never become rich because of my talent, but I am enriched because of my talent,” he said.
