Seeing the wood for the trees

Environmental artist Gary Cook explores England’s temperate rainforests –immerse yourself in these watery worlds in his exhibition at Child Okeford

Oak

Since he left Bournemouth University in the late 1980s and worked as associate editor and senior artist for The Sunday Times for 26 years, Gary Cook has come a long way, to arrive back where he started.

Returned to Dorset – he lives in Shaftesbury – he has become deeply involved in the environment, not only around him in the Blackmore Vale, but across the country. His travels with paint brushes and sketch books have recently taken him to Devon, Cornwall, Wales and the Lake District, exploring and recording the mysterious beauty of England’s remaining rainforests.

Temperate rainforest used to cover about 20 percent of the country – now it is less than one per cent

We all tend to think of the Amazon or the deep, dark, wildlife-rich jungles of central Africa or the Indonesian archipelago when we imagine rainforests – but those are tropical. Our English ones, like the vast and gently dripping rainforest of the Olympia peninsula of Washington State, are temperate rainforests. And they are among the most beautiful and fragile environments in the world, at risk from climate change and other manmade threats. It is estimated that they once covered about 20 percent of the country – now it is less than one per cent.

In his notes on his exhibition of these recent paintings, at The Art Stable, at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, Gary says that there may still be some small remnants of temperate rainforest in Dorset.

His work over recent years has shown a deepening concern for the environment, as he explores our complicated relationship with nature, and the often detrimental impact we humans have.

Autumn mist – morning mist rising from around an ancient oak tree

Hidden messages

Gary, who is an elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Society of Graphic Fine Art, graduated from Bournemouth in 1987 and was made a fellow of the university in 1999. In part, it was his experience as the Sunday Times artist, during which he won many International awards, that developed his awareness of environmental issues. He says: ‘I often produced diagrams highlighting environmental problems. In the last decade as a painter, including an environmental message in each piece has been very important to me. For example, oak trees provide the habitat for around 2,300 different species from bats to beetles and lichens to mammals. The names and silhouettes of some of these species are discreetly included in my paintings.’

Rainforest remnants

Explaining how the temperate rainforest project began, Gary says he had been reading Guy Shrubsole’s book The Lost Rainforests of Britain, and was struck by the author’s descriptions of the plants to look out for, because they were ‘telltale signs of these magical, enveloping places.’ They include gnarly, moss-covered oak branches: ‘The clue is in the name’, he says. ’They need rain.’ Shaftesbury is surrounded by ancient holloways, of which Dinah’s Hollow on the C13 at Melbury Abbas is probably the best-known. Gary began exploring these deep, damp byways and valleys around the town. There is, he says, a theory that the oaks that grow here may be remnants of rainforests. You may have walked in some of the places Gary has painted, in Dorset or further afield: ’Some of the small tracts I have painted around the country are actually in popular tourist areas.’

The best-known surviving English temperate rainforest is Wistman’s Wood, the extraordinary, atmospheric, ancient woodland near Two Bridges on Dartmoor. Visiting this wood is like walking into a magical landscape that could have been described by Tolkien. It has been a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest for 60 years, and has additional protection as part of a National Nature Reserve.

Gary is an elected member of the group of artists working in many different media including wood and stone, who call themselves The Arborealists. He contributes to Resurgence and Ecologist magazine.

• The Temperate Times exhibition at The Art Stable continues to 20th July. For more information on his work, and future exhibitions and projects, see Gary’s website cookthepainter.com

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