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Airbrushing Contemporary Nudes


A.D. Cook is an internationally recognized, innovative artist whose disciplines include drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and design. His large-scale nude paintings are compelling testaments to the beauty of the female form.

Born in 1961 in Phoenix, Arizona, Cook knew at a very early age that he wanted to be an artist. His family moved around a lot, sometimes two or three times a year, living much of their lives in truck campers or travel trailers. The one thing that Cook always managed to cart along on their sojourns was his pencils and drawing pad.

As a youngster, the artist created coloring books that he sold at school, QSL cards for his father's CB friends, and mascot patches. Eventually, in the eighth grade, he saved enough money to buy an airbrush. Although he would eventually upgrade from his original Binks Wren, this tool became his most trusted friend and he would go on to enjoy huge success with it throughout his art career.

Cook did a lot of graphic design work in his twenties and eventually went to work full-time for Hollywood Entertainment Corporation which ran the expanding chain of Hollywood Video stores. His most notable work there involved painting in-store murals, doing hundreds over the course of his 5-year employment. These murals garnered awards and recognition, winning Airbrush Action magazine's Seventh Annual Airbrush Excellence Competition and being featured in Airbrush Action 3 and Airbrush Magazine.

His developing airbrush skills would benefit him greatly in his later entry into the world of nude figurative painting. If the technique and level of realism in these early works is excellent, then his later erotic works may be deemed masterful.

After his work with Hollywood video, the artist and his wife founded A.D. Cook and Associates, Inc., in Portland, a business focused on graphic design and print management. Major clients included Iwata-Medea Airbrush Products, Artool Art Products, PIAA Lights Crimson Trace Lasergrips and WebTrends Software.

Despite success in business, Cook longed to get out of the design world and into a full-time career in art. Combining his passion for painting with his passion for motorcycles, he produced a series of motorcycle paintings that gained the attention of Indian Motorcycle Company. A promising deal to become their officially licensed artist unfortunately fell through when the company surprisingly went out of business in 2003.

It was at this time that the artist finally found his way back to a type of painting that he had virtually abandoned for several years: large-scale figurative works. More specifically: extremely compelling erotic female nudes. Although originally experimenting with pastel, he realized that what he was attempting to accomplish deserved paint.

He has since produced an exquisite body of fine art nudes. He relies on live models to create extremely sensuous paintings. He shows perfectly how light and shadow play on the nude female form, showing why he is so highly regarded in the art world. Cook normally conducts a photo session with his chosen model before taking these images into the studio to work on his canvasses. These figurative paintings are generally very large, averaging 9 to 24 square feet, but sometimes even larger. Many of the models are depicted in slightly larger than life size. The results are stunning.

Besides his figurative erotic works on canvas, Cook has recently produced some highly innovative work on textured metal. The result is a fascinating combination of photography, painting and sculpture, and to do this he relies on a proprietary technique which he himself developed and calls Artist Fusion "and Metal Fusion".

After many years spent in the Pacific Northwest, the artist and his wife now make their home in Las Vegas, Nevada. His work has been featured in many galleries in the American City of Lights and he has recently proudly opened his own A.D. Cook Fine Art Gallery. Here he showcases his original nude figurative works and operates his studio.

Major Accomplishments
  • featured numerous times in Airbrush Action Magazine
  • first-place winner of Airbrush Action 7th Annual Airbrush Excellence Competition, Mural Category
  • third-place winner of Airbrush Action Magazine 15th Annual Airbrush Excellence Competition, Fine Art Category
  • one of ten artists featured in the Cycle / Auto Art Show at Gallery at the Square in New York City
  • many one-man shows at galleries across North America
  • a total of 18 Showcase Awards with onemodelplace.com
  • featured in Aphrodisia: The Art of the Female Form
  • opened A.D. Cook Fine Art Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada

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