‘Living in Ireland has been very positive for me’, Barrie Cooke tells Brian McAvera ahead of his major exhibition at the RHA in September
Barrie Cooke is one of those men who gives the impression of being larger than he actually is. Bearded, solid and substantial, and a committed fisherman, one can easily imagine him in waders, armed with a rod, plugged like a mooring spike into a river. To an outsider, he lives in the middle of nowhere, in Co. Sligo, and near the border of Roscommon. To get to him, you have to make your way down endless narrow winding roads, and then a dirt track that really needs the services of a superior four-wheel drive. (Artist as bearded Celt, keeping invaders out). However the views, in the midst of placid countryside, and overlooking water in the middle distance, are worthy of a Flemish 15th-century painter
