Captivated by ocean’s endless variety
Artist has stayed true
to subject over
four-decade career
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer

Farrah Maffai Marine artist Barbara Cocker of Rumson stands in front of Poured Emeralds, one of her paintings of the sea on display at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center.

To Barbara Cocker, the ocean is poetry in motion. Cocker, a marine artist from Rumson, takes the titles for her paintings from the centuries of poetry about the sea she has continuously researched during an artistic career spanning more than four decades.

During that time, "I’ve never stopped painting," she said. "Some artists have dry periods, but I’ve never had that misfortune."

Cocker said she may be helped by the fact that she’s not introspective and doesn’t try to dissect her paintings.

"It does what it does," she said of the sea. "It’s a continuing event. I think it’s an awesome subject. It’s glamorous and exciting. It’s powerful, lyrical, rhythmic, demanding. There are so many words that can be used for the ocean."

Jubilation

Cocker, who lives within walking distance of the beach in Sea Bright, the locale of many of her paintings, has an exhibit of her work on display at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center, 128 Ocean Ave., through Sunday. It will conclude with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

A self-taught artist, Cocker, 78, attended Becker Junior College in Worcester, Mass., and Mount St. Mary’s College in New Hampshire. Her mother was an artist and graduated from the Massachusetts School of Art. Cocker said her mother gave private lessons in her studio.

Her mother’s accomplishments are amazing for that generation, she said, noting that her mother graduated in 1914. "She was known as the town artist. She raised seven kids and sent everybody to college."

Cocker said she began painting on the Sea Bright beachfront when her children were young.

Wave Advance

"My son, Neil, was a surfer, and I’d go down to watch him and paint at the same time," she recalled.

Cocker said she only depicts the sea in her paintings and intentionally leaves out man-made structures — such as beach clubs — and people — such as children playing in the sand.

"There is a place for illustration," she said. "But that’s not me. I don’t do children and umbrellas. It interferes with the scope of the sea. I want people to see the open, wonderful sea."

Cocker has painted the sea all over the world, in such places as Greece, Barbados, Hawaii and Portugal, but her favorite place to paint the sea is right here on the New Jersey Shore.

"Barbados has many bands of color, such as aquamarine," she observed. "But the color of the water in New Jersey … (provides) a scene that is all-encompassing and lives in your mind and memory. I like the New Jersey seashore. We have some of the best beaches in the world.

"Some of the beaches in Ireland," she said, "have that same openness" as in New Jersey.

"I think of sea paintings as memory paintings," she added. "It’s something we love to remember."

Cocker tells the story of a man who bought several of her paintings at her last exhibit at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center two years ago. She asked him why he was buying so many.

"He said he grew up with my paintings in his home, but his mother wasn’t about to part with any of them," she related. "He said, ‘So I went out and got my own.’ "

Cocker sold 31 of the 40 paintings on display in that prior exhibit at the cultural center. She said she has no problem parting with them and no desire to keep any for herself.

"No," she said with a laugh when posed with that question. "I want them to go forth."

Cocker said it’s not the sales of the paintings that satisfy her.

"The sales are not as important as the affirmation of the buyers who want to have a painting in the family," she said. "The affirmations lift me into a place where I want to be a better painter."

Cocker said she tries to schedule one exhibition of her paintings a year — at the cultural center here, at the Eastern Branch of the Monmouth County Library in Shrewsbury, or in a corporate setting.

"That’s the thing that drives me," she said of the annual exhibitions. "I try to make each exhibit better — more beautiful — than the last one. It hones my skills — keeps me interested."

Cocker said she expected her current exhibit at the cultural center would be her last big one, but Richard L. Keller, the volunteer director of the center, was doubtful. He recalled she said that same thing two years ago when she last showed there and hoped she would return again in the future.

"She sells a lot of paintings," he said. "When she sells them, it means a profit for our association."

Cocker, who paints with acrylics, said although encroaching arthritis in her fingers has slowed her in recent years, she’s still very healthy and feels she has a lot more work to do.

Asked how she keeps her painting fresh after all these years, she replied: "I see colors in a vivid way, and I enjoy translating the colors of the ocean onto canvas. It’s exciting."

She always has been a marine artist from the time she took up her brush and sold her first painting and said she sees numerous patterns with the tides and breaking waves.

"I never think of it as frightening," she said of the ocean. "I think of it as a benevolent force. People enjoy the ocean — to bathe (in) and to see. To me, it’s the most beautiful subject for an artist to paint. I’m happy to have had the ability to produce this much work."

While Cocker initially painted her pictures from start to finish on the beach, she said she now does watercolor sketches on the beach that she brings home and transfers to canvas.

She loves to watch the movement of the water.

"It changes every second," she explained. "There’s always a change of patterns. It’s condensing into a predictable happening. The ocean always does what it does. The ocean is different every second, but there are predictable patterns of moving water. … It’s a complex subject.

"Some of my best paintings," she added, "are those I start and finish immediately and don’t change."

One of Cocker’s paintings graces the cover of the book To the Shore Once More – Volume II, a compilation of prose, poetry and works of art compiled by Frank Finale and published by Jersey Shore Publications of Bay Head. Other paintings of hers are inside.

Cocker said she’s now working on a book with Jersey Shore Publications that will feature her art alongside the sea poetry she has researched over the years. Framed excerpts of some of that poetry accompany her paintings now on exhibit at the cultural center.

"Each one [of her paintings of the sea] is to be enjoyed in its own way, and the poetry is words to describe this amazing event that happens every second," she said.

"I’m definitely hung up on this subject," she said with an infectious smile. "I’m just going to go on and try to depict it more accurately and beautifully.

"My goal is to do paintings that I feel really praise the ocean on canvas."