Donna M. Cook

Donna M. Cook

Well-known area portrait artist Donna Cook died peacefully on April 2, 2016 at the age of 90, holding her daughter's hand.

Donna was born in Snohomish, Washington, September 29, 1925,

to Blanch Lucille Bagley Balch, and Lee Roy Balch, of Snohomish. The family moved to Port Orchard, where Donna, her older brother Dale, and twin sister Doris, grew up on a small farm.

Graduating from the University of Washington in 1948 with a degree in Fine Arts, Donna later regretted the UW's "modern art" aesthetic, and felt it held her back. Instead, bucking the trend, she pursued traditional and realistic styles, and modern impressionism. A strong early influence was her teacher, Leon Derbyshire. She eventually studied with, among others, John Carl Podrebarac, and Sergei Bongart.

In the 1950's Donna worked as a fashion illustrator, drawing swing skirts and high heeled pumps for the advertising departments of the old Rhodes Department Store in Tacoma, and Frederick & Nelson's in Seattle. At the dawn of the Space Age she worked in the art department at Boeing, creating artist's interpretations of a future in aerospace.

An avid hiker and climber, Donna spent two summers as a fire lookout, in 1944 at the Blue Mountain Lookout, and in 1945 at Hurricane Ridge. As a member of the Mountaineers she climbed Mount Olympus, on the Olympic Peninsula, twice, and was once carried down a mountainside by an avalanche.

Donna met her husband, Gordon Gene Cook, of Ephrata, at a folk dance in Lake Chelan, in 1958. They eloped soon after.

With Gordon at her side, she began her career as an independent artist in 1962, working out of their log cabin home in Bellevue. By 1968 Gordon, a prote;ge; of Dudley Carter, had traded his job as a model maker in the Boeing Wind Tunnel for self-employment as a wood carver. Together they lived by their art from that time forward, traveling the state to art shows and county fairs where Donna drew portraits, and Gordon did the framing. Back home Donna designed Gordon's wood carving and ornamental wrought iron projects, and did lettering and painting for his carved wood signs. By 1974 their daughter Kerry, then age 10, had begun cutting paper silhouettes out of the side of Donna's portrait booth. Donna and Gordon were a successful team. As independent, self-employed artists they were able to build a beautiful home beside the cabin, care for Donna's aging parents, put their daughter through school, and create a wonderful way of life.

Donna's portraits in oils were a regular feature of the PONCHO Art Auction. Even after Gordon's death in 1999, Donna worked well into her 80's to lend a hand in her daughter's art business.

Donna is survived by her daughter, silhouette artist Kerry Cook.