Born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire in 1960 Nigel Cooke is a natural born artist, he sold his first painting age just 14 years but rather than going directly into a career in art, after school Nigel joined the Merchant Navy.

In 1992 he began working at Butlins as their resident caricaturist and entertainer. Later pursuing more caricature roles, opening concessions on Blackpool Pier and Pleasure Beach, in Manchester’s Trafford Centre Mall and at Alton Towers, during this time Nigel sketched an estimated 50,000 works of art in over 10,000 hours of live drawing and painting!

He has also worked in Hong Kong at C.I.M International as a character designer and continues to be a member of the National Caricature Network in the USA having joined in 1996.

Now an acclaimed cityscape painter, Nigel Cooke’s work has evolved into fine art. His background in illustrative quick drawing flows through into his paintings where he captures the ambience, disposition and dynamics of the cities he portrays, with meaningful brushwork, unusual textured ‘drizzle’ and ‘drippy’ paint intricately built up in detailed layers.