COOKE, Jonathan

 

 

The stained glass artist, conservator and teacher, Jonathan Cooke, works alongside his wife, Ruth, in their stained glass conservation business, established in 1987 and based in Ilkley.

His commissioned conservation work has included projects locally at Cartwright Hall, Cliffe Castle, and Leeds Museums, and further afield at Oxford Museum of Modern Art, the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, William Morris Gallery in east London, the Isle of Man Manx Museum, and the Glass Rainbow Trust in Jersey.

Jonathan also serves on the Stained Glass Committee of the Council for the Care of Churches, and several Diocesan Advisory Committees.

Jonathan learned the traditional techniques of stained glass and leaden glazing via a four year apprenticeship at York Glaziers’ Trust and worked on the restoration of York Minster stained glass following the fire there in 1984.

His current work spans commissioned work as a glass conservator, tutor, and as a stained glass painter and artist working independently on his own ideas and designs. He has also worked alongside other artists to help them express their own ideas through the medium of stained and painted glass.

As a tutor, Jonathan has taught glass painting at the Architectural Glass Centre in Swansea for more than twenty years, as well as in other venues, including York, at his own studio in Ilkley, and internationally in the USA and in Norway. He is also a mentor for the Institute of Conservation (ICON) and for the Livery Companies’ pilot apprenticeship scheme.

Jonathan is an ICON listed Accredited Conservator/Restorer (ACR) and the author of Time and Temperature: a glass painter’s guide to multiple layering, published in 2013 by Swansea Metropolitan University  in association with the Architectural Glass Centre, Swansea.

He is also the author of Stained Glass Narrative, 1980-2020,  an illustrated 34 page paperback review of some of Jonathan’s work over the last 40 years. ISBN 978-1-71-466366-8

 

COOKE, Jonathan. Book

 

He has also presented papers and spoken at conferences in the UK and overseas, including the USA.  In September 2017, for example, he presented a paper on the techniques of late c19 English stained glass workshops at the International Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) conference in Cambridge, later published: Art at the Surface: Creation, Recognition, Conservation.

COOKE, Jonathan. Blackberries

Blackberries. Detail from a stained glass painted sculpture at Nell Bank, Ilkley. Image: see artist’s website, below.

Jonathan’s own artwork has been commissioned for private and public purposes, including at the Nell Bank Centre, Ilkley (see image above) and  past group exhibitions of his own work include locally at the Ilkley Art Trail; Mill Bridge Gallery in Skipton; and scheduled for September 2018: ‘Fire, Light & Shade’ exhibition at the Manor House Gallery, Ilkley.  In a major commission during 2018/19, Jonathan and Ruth restored the large Butterfield stained glass window on the central staircase at Cliffe Castle, Keighley (see image below).

Butterfield Window, Cliffe Castle, Keighley. Image: Bradford ‘Telegraph & Argus’.

Outside the region Jonathan’s work has also been shown at the Glaziers Art Fair in London, and at The Grange Gallery, Rottingdean, Sussex.

COOKE, Jonathan. Greyhounds

Greyhounds. Detail from a stained glass door panel, 2016. Image: see artist’s website, below.

 

 

‘The Last of Earth’. Image: courtesy of the artist.

 

Artist’s websiteJonathan Cooke

 

See also ‘The Art of Light: A Stained Glass Journey’, an illustrated online article summarising Jonathan’s career path into work with stained glass:  The Art of Light

 

 

 

 

 

 

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