Stef Cook

Sam, 2012  watercolor  5.25" x 8.5"

Ben, 2012  watercolor  5.25" x 8.5"

Yezen, 2012  watercolor  5.25" x 8.5"

CJ, 2012  Watercolor  3"x4"

Kent, 2012  Watercolor  3"x4"

Stef Cook is a portraitist. A good one.  Her profile watercolors go beyond mere recording and begin to say really emotive things about both the models and the artist. After looking through all of the portraits posted on her website, and getting a feel for each one I quickly began to feel as if I was intimately familiar with this group of friends and acquaintances. I began to have opinions about each one. This one I rather liked because he's sort of laid back, kind of a nerd and unpretentious. That one however is kind of an annoying sack when you really get down to it. Not that he's a jerk really, but he just gets on my nerves. OK I confess he seems perfectly nice but I just don't like him. This other guy is pretty cool but not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. So and so, on the other hand, is too smart for his own good and frankly I get a little tired of his left wing conspiracy theories. These people get into your head the way characters in a really well done TV show can. They make you feel like you're in on their lives and that is a remarkable achievement. The more abstracted portraits are fascinating too because the artist is still able to communicate so much with so little. I mean, come on, Kent is... well jeez, he's just such a Kent!
Go hang out with more of these guys at www.stefcook.com
And maybe one of these days Stef will introduce us to some of the gals in her gang. Oddly I had at first assumed Stef was a Stefan because all the portraits are of dudes. But she's a Stefanie. Go figure. You just can't judge gender from art. I like that.

Thanks to the folks over at www.vivianite.net for posting her work