Born in Surrey, England, Beryl Cook is a painter of scenes of humanity that are often humorous because of the distorted shapes of the figures and the situations in which they are placed. She has been described as a "Rubens with jokes" and "as a shy and private person, often depicting the flamboyant and extrovert characters she would love to be. She prefers to observe a crowd of people, her acute eye missing nothing. She records in minute detail scenes of everyday life and has an almost photographic memory.

Of her paintings, she says: I don't know how my pictures happen; they just do. They exist, but for the life of me I can't explain them."

Although Beryl Cook travels extensively, her home ha...