Martin Cooke
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martincooke.bsky.social
Martin Cooke
@martincooke.bsky.social
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Martin Cooke @martincooke.bsky.social · Feb 11
Unsure if this surprisingly peaceful for #crimson painting is sweet enough for #SensoryArt. This is my first medium-scale artwork of 2025 in prep for a July exhibition.

Immaterial World (2025)
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 80cm

#AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #FebruArty #ArtYear #Art #OliveGreen
A medium-sized portrait-orientated abstract painting, displayed in a white frame atop a marble fireplace. The canvas is composed mainly of crimson, with somewhat lighter tones in the upper right, along with blocks of pale olive green. Thin dark linear marks run vertically, along with thicker more diffuse curved marks in the low third.
martincooke.bsky.social
For the #BlueSkyArtShow #Vibrant theme, here's a small #expressionist #abstract #acrylic #artwork

Cross Purposes (2025)
Acrylic on paper
12 x 12 cm

#art #acrylics #blue #orange
Square format acrylic painting in blue and orange consisting of expressionistic diagonal strands of varying widths and at various depths through the use of acrylic medium glazing.
June 7, 2025 at 9:42 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For #MountainMonday an abstracted recollection of a #Scottish #Munro outing

Pap of Glencoe (2025)
Acrylic and pen on canvas
50x 50 cm

#Acrylics #AbstractLandscape #Art #Abstract #Scotland
Mountain-scape with succession of receding ridges in purples, greens, pinks with touches of light turquoise and yellow. Marks indicate patches of scree.
April 14, 2025 at 12:09 PM
martincooke.bsky.social
Recently completed

Portal (2025)
Acrylic, pen, pencil & charcoal on canvas
60 x 60cm

#AbstractApril #Acrylics #AbstractArt #ArtYear #AbstractLandscape
Abstract cityscape/landscape in subdued ivory and ochre tones with blocks of viridian and yellow highlights, along with darker vertical and horizontal linear marks and a few quadrants and scrawls.
April 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
martincooke.bsky.social
A #Journey to the truth, in homage to the great Colin Dexter and his #InspectorMorse #Oxford detective novels:

The Jewel That Was Ours (2025)
Acrylic and paint pen on canvas
50 x 60 cm

#AbstractLandscape #BlueSkyArtShow #Acrylics #AbstractArt #Cityscape #AbstractPainting #ArtYear
Portrait-orientation abstract painting predominantly in oranges and blues, with flashes of pinks and reds, and expressive architectural hints.
March 22, 2025 at 4:51 PM
martincooke.bsky.social
Seaborne (2025)
Acrylic and pen on canvas
50 x 60 cm

#AbstractLandscape #Seascape #Acrylics #AbstractArt #Art #ArtYear
Portrait orientation abstract seascape. The composition is a loose tesselation of rectangles in mainly blue tones, with brick pink roughly triangular shapes and some thin linear marks.
March 16, 2025 at 5:52 PM
martincooke.bsky.social
Storms over Jerez (2025)
Acrylic, pen and charcoal on paper
45 x 30cm

#Acrylics #AbstractLandscape #AbstractArt #Art #ArtYear
Landscape format abstracted profile view of the monumental architecture of Jerez, abutting fields. Blocky design with muted greens and blues, bright orange and pink, and a foreboding sky.
March 8, 2025 at 2:23 PM
martincooke.bsky.social
The tallest human-made mound in Europe, constructed over 4300 years ago, lies #abandoned and enigmatic in the #Wiltshire countryside near #Avebury:

Silbury Hill (2023)
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 60cm

#BlueSkyArtShow #UNESCO #England #Prehistory #AbstractLandscape #AbstractArt #FebruArty #Acrylics
A portrait orientation bi-colour (cobalt teal and naphthol red) composition representing in an abstract way a flat-topped, straight-sided mound. The painting is composed of blocks of colour in three layers, with expressionist markings within each layer, and linking the blocks, and the mound, to the earth and sky.
February 22, 2025 at 9:51 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
I do occasionally use #turquoise, here paired with #magenta for an abstract view of a bike race, probably the Giro (roll on May!):

Peloton (2024)
Acrylic on card
17 x 11cm

#Acrylics #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt #FebruArty
A landscape format bi-colour composition made of blocks of magenta tones backed off with turquoise blocks, overlain with uniform width curvilinear quasi-parallel marks. Some blocks have small rectangular holes where the background shows through.
February 20, 2025 at 8:53 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For #ArtYear and #FebruArty, painted a couple of years back to celebrate hope that goes with a change of direction in the #Amazon

Regeneration (2023)
Acrylic on paper
25 x 25cm

#Rainforest #Brasil #Acrylics #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt
A square format acrylic painting showing an abstracted view of lush vegetation in shades of green, mustard yellow, pale and bright pink, with a darker crimson framing. Dark green stripes and a modest amount of paint splatter add texture.
February 19, 2025 at 8:57 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
This is for #MountainMonday and possibly qualifies as pretty rough and rugged for #SensoryArt too:

Alta Montaña (2024)
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 60cm
(private collection, UK)

#FebruArty #Acrylics #AbstractLandscape #Mountain #AbstractArt #Art
Square format canvas with abstracted mountain scenery consisting of a set of ridges ending in high mountains in purple, green, yellow and pale orange. The texture is highly scarred and rough with linear marks, scrapes and scratches.
February 17, 2025 at 9:14 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
I hope I can be forgiven this near #Monochromatic just-completed painting for #BlueSkyArtShow.

First Meditations (2025)
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 100cm

#Coltrane #Architectural #FebruArty #AbstractLandscape #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt #ArtYear #Acrylics #Crimson
A square format canvas, placed against a fireplace for scale, made up primarily of blocks in crimson hues, with a lighter zone with olive greens and pinks in the upper right. Sparse dark sweeping arches, horizontals and verticals complete the composition.
February 15, 2025 at 9:40 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
Channelling my love of Nicolas de Staël's paintings for this small #Orange #FebruArty offering

A Day at the Beach (2024)
Acrylic on paper
15 x 11cm

#Heat #Summer #AbstractLandscape #Painting #AbstractArt #ArtYear #Acrylics #DeStael
Landscape-oriented abstract landscape composed of mainly solid blocks of orange-brown and grey-blue hues, with a highly-saturated deep orange block right of centre. The upper right corner is made up of various tones of blue. The white of the paper shows through at the edges of some blocks.
February 12, 2025 at 9:54 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
Unsure if this surprisingly peaceful for #crimson painting is sweet enough for #SensoryArt. This is my first medium-scale artwork of 2025 in prep for a July exhibition.

Immaterial World (2025)
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 80cm

#AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #FebruArty #ArtYear #Art #OliveGreen
A medium-sized portrait-orientated abstract painting, displayed in a white frame atop a marble fireplace. The canvas is composed mainly of crimson, with somewhat lighter tones in the upper right, along with blocks of pale olive green. Thin dark linear marks run vertically, along with thicker more diffuse curved marks in the low third.
February 11, 2025 at 11:28 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
I don't have much for the #Rings theme of #FebruArty apart from this experiment in generating depth sensations from hue

Teem (2024)
Acrylic on paper
20 x 6cm

#Chromostereopsis #Shadow #Red #Blue #AbstractArt #Art
A wide-format strip showing red hollow circles (rings) on a blue background, along with some green discs and blue hollow disc shadows and linear marks indicating motion. The red circles form a compact grouping in the centre of the strip.
February 10, 2025 at 10:37 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For the #Reflections theme of #BlueSkyArtShow, a recollected view across Loch Lubnaig in the #Scottish #Highlands from the A84 road

Loch Lubnaig (2024)
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 50cm

#Scotland #Mountain #Loch #Trossachs #AbstractLandscape #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt #Art #FebruArty
A square format abstracted landscape. The lower part is occupied by the waters of the loch while most of the upper parts shows the lumpy mountainside rising from the loch. Up close the water and mountainside are highly textured, superficially dour in hue, but with dabs of unusual colouring.
February 8, 2025 at 8:44 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
Here's a recent gouache and ink vignette for #ArtYear and #FebruArty

Rust Belt (2025)
Acrylic gouache and pen on card
17 x 11cm

#Industry #AbstractLandscape #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt #Art
An ambiguous industrial/riverine landscape consisting of a sparse, loosely connected collection of imagined structures delineated in black ink pen on a base of burnt sienna gouache forms.
February 5, 2025 at 9:14 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For #FebruArty #Purple, a loosely #Geology inspired abstract:

Garnetiforous (2024)
Acrylic on board
30 x 30cm

#Rock #Garnet #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt #Art #Metamorphic
Square format abstract inspired by a section through a metamorphic-type rock. The base layer contains viridian green, overlaid with purple, but with lighter almost pink angular strands that appear to float above and at time be sandwiched between rock layers. Square and hexagonal purple shapes form a stepping-stone-like progression across one of the diagonals. The lower right contains an idiosyncratic blue strand surrounding a particularly dark purple patch.
February 4, 2025 at 10:06 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For the #Fuzzy day of #SensoryArt and #FebruArty, one of my #Irrepressible series:

Signal / Noise (2024)
Acrylic on card
13 x 13cm

#HopeNotFear #Expressionist #AbstractPainting #AbstractArt #Art #Orange #Yellow #Black #Gestural
A sparse layer of orange and orange-yellow marks on a white background are overlain by two broad fuzzy transparent black sweeps, which in turn is topped by an opaque black gestural mark, almost a symbol. Regardless of the masking effect of the blacks, the oranges and yellows shine through indomitably.
February 3, 2025 at 8:56 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For the #light theme of #BlueSkyArtShow and #FebruArty

Lemonlight (2024)
Acrylic on card
21 x 13cm

#Theatre #AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #Art #Expressionist #Purple #Yellow
A landscape format abstract composition in yellow and purple hues along with their mixtures, consisting of rounded blocks, curved sweeping lines of varying thickness. At centre-right is a vertical cone of lemon-hued light illuminating the abstract stage and giving rise to the title; above centre are a pair of twin dark concentric rings. At several points are curved series of short but thick parallel lines in purple. To my eye the work has a bit of a louche feel.
February 1, 2025 at 9:22 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For the final day of the very enjoyable and inspiring #JanuArty, something angular, spiky, and ice-breaking.

Tipping Point (2024)
Acrylic mixed media on paper
26 x 36cm

#AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #Art #Expressionist #Orange #Blue #Melting #ClimateEmergency
Portrait-oriented abstract composition in light blues and purples, depicting an icy landscape seen from above, topped with contradictory large jagged orange and yellow-orange shapes with spiky ice-breaking forms. Striations formed by linear marks in pen and comb create a feeling of strain and tension.
January 31, 2025 at 8:50 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
Day 30 of #JanuArty is #Green, so here's something looking forward to #Spring

Primaveral (2024)
Acrylic mixed media on canvas
61 x 61cm
(private collection, UK)

#AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #Art #Expressionism #Orange
A square format canvas in a white frame. The composition is abstract, with green and orange tones, mainly in large patches, against a white background. Thin green lines bisect some of the orange segments. These have a similar luminosity to the orange and as a consequence lead to a slight perceptual vibration.
January 30, 2025 at 7:55 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For day 29 of #JanuArty a curvy tri-colour experiment in acrylic deglazing. The title (somewhat randomly but fittingly) comes from #IvoPapazov's frenetically marvellous 1989 album.

Orpheus Ascending (2024)
Acrylic on paper
30 x 30cm

#AbstractArt #Art #Expressionist #Red #Yellow #Blue
A square format abstract displayed in a black frame with a narrow white passe-partout. The painting is composed of 3 layers of acrylic paint, each one deglazed with water to produce a tangle of multicoloured curves revealing parts of each of the lower layers. The bare white of the paper that survives 3 successive deglazing steps appears in a few parts.
January 29, 2025 at 7:43 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For day 28 of #JanuArty here's a small abstract composition showing a jumble of #flat blocks with an irregular one perched precariously

Blue Erratic (2024)
Acrylic ink on paper
12 x 12cm

#AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #Art #Erratic #Ink #Blue #Red #Expressionist
A small square abstract consisting of a number of semi-transparent reddish blocks on a light blue background. An irregular blue block, the erratic, is balanced precariously on the right hand red block. The blue appears to sink into the surface of the painting. Expressionist marks, both additive and subtractive, along with ink sitting in natural depressions of the coarse paper, add texture.
January 28, 2025 at 7:55 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For red day of #JanuArty here's an artwork inspired by my time as a researcher in #Auditory processing:

Red Cognition (2023)
Matt and gloss enamel on paper
20 x 30cm

#AbstractArt #Art #Red #Green #Brainstem #Cortex #Activation
Portrait-oriented abstract composition with relatively sparse red enamel paint ovals and discs, and vertical runs, masked by a dense forest of dark green matt enamel paint in the upper third. The artwork represents activation in the nuclei of the auditory brainstem, with binaural inputs from the left and right auditory peripheries, running all the way up to the auditory cortex.
January 27, 2025 at 9:50 AM
martincooke.bsky.social
For #JanuArty #Broken day, a painting inspired by the ongoing eruptions in #Reykjanes, #Iceland, where the mid-Atlantic plate boundary rises above sea level.

Reykjanes (2024)
Acrylic on canvas
61 x 61cm

#AbstractLandscape #AbstractArt #Art #Geology
An abstract landscape in a white frame. The composition is an irregular grid of varying sizes and shapes, almost stained glass like, with a predominantly green hue resulting from a yellow ochre glaze over blue, with touches of pink and red, and expressionistic marks.
January 26, 2025 at 8:57 AM