Landscape artist Carole Cooke is pushing a deadline—and she’s pushing her envelope. Sometimes you need to take a good look around and change course. After all, life is change.

A major change for Cooke came about 11 years ago when, as a fledging artist, relatively speaking, she was accepted into the Masters of the American West Art Show at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, California. “I really wanted to get into that show, because I knew it would be a turning point for my career, and it really was,” she says. “John Geraghty [a trustee of the Autry National Center] was really kind to me. He gave me a chance, when other people didn’t think I should be in the show.”

Carole Cooke

Wide Open Spaces
Oil
30″x40″
“The territory on the northeast fringes of Glacier National Park is really dramatic. I spent two weeks last year painting all around that area. Everywhere I turned there was another breathtaking scene. In this painting, I wanted to convey the grandeur of that landscape. When I was finishing up this studio painting, I recalled those weeks and was struck with the feelings of being in one of those wide open spaces. Titles to my work often come to mind when I am immersed in the painting.”

Carole Cooke

Winter Moon Rising
Oil
60″x48″
“I witnessed this view from my old studio in Colorado so many times I finally just had to try to capture it. There is something about a full moon rising in the winter that I find so captivating it stops me in my tracks. The subtle way the sky colors change and melt into one another is a challenge to create in paint. I wanted to show how big the sky feels and how all that negative space is needed to create the drama of nightfall.”