BY KAREN BOSSICK

Cooper Cox was famous for drawing and doodling trees in the margins of his school books during his time at Sun Valley Community School. Now, 25 years later, he’s still making his mark with trees but with fantastical paintings that are showing up in art galleries from coast to coast.

OCHI Gallery is showing a solo exhibition of Cox’s work in a show called “Out There.” And the Ketchum gallery will stage a reception for Cox from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 28. The paintings can also be viewed  from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and by appointment through Feb. 24, 2024, at the gallery at 119 Lewis St.

Cox’s solitary but elegant snags easily draw viewers in as their arms reach out against the backdrop of swirling skies that evoke thoughts of wavy oceans or even the tornado-scape in “Wizard of Oz.” Heavily textured hills, which resemble yarn in paint, invite viewers to study the paintings closer.

“There’s something peaceful about the tree, but yet the sky is dramatic,” said Cooper, a 1997 graduate of Sun Valley Community School.

Cox, son of Randall and Glenda Cox, has a studio in his parents’ Ketchum home, working there during prolonged visits to Sun Valley four or five times a year. He has another in Brooklyn where he lives the rest of the year.

He starts each painting by dipping his hand in paint and waving it or swirling it across the canvas to create his unique skies.

“I’m thankful that my parents let me paint in their house—because oil paint gets everywhere,” said Cox, who utilizes various sized brushes for the rest of his works.

Cox has always had a soft spot in his heart for art, in part because of what he calls his parents’ obsession with it.  He grew up watching how Ketchum sculptor Rod Kagan turned an idea into a large-scale steel sculpture.

And that fascination continued in New York where he was able to visit the studios to see the process of contemporary artists like Will Ryman, an artist known for his large-scale sculptures and public art projects such as “The Dinner Table.”

Cox himself was drawn not to sculptures but to paintings, especially the work of Old Masters such as Claude Monet, Charles-Louis Guigon and Vincent Van Gogh.

“When I go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I’m warned time and time again not to get so close to the paintings because I’m trying to look at the color palette and brushstrokes and understand where they came from,” he said

Despite his affinity for art, Cox earned a dual BA in philosophy and sociology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Following graduation he started a creative agency where he directed Outside Magazine events and collaborated with such brands as Nike.

It was only a few years ago, after he sold his agency, that he began showing his paintings in public. They became an instant hit, snaring exhibitions at the Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles, The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Nick Weber Studio in New York City.

“When I picked up the brush with the intent of going public, it felt like this is what I should’ve been doing all along,” said Cox. “It feels really great.”

One of the reasons Cooper likes to return to Sun Valley so often is because the surrounding mountains give him inspiration for his work.

“There’s not a lot of nature in New York. Here, you find some incredible trees at high elevations in the Boulders, the Sawtooth Mountains, even Craters of the Moon. Windswept pines, beautiful silver looking trees with all the bark removed…I want to reconnect with my childhood and trees have been such an obsession with me for a long time.”

One of his paintings—part of the exhibition at OCHI Gallery--celebrates the decades of his life. The first tree pays homage to his childhood. A middle tree splits off to depict when his daughter was born. Still another is just emerging onto the canvas from the right side, a statement that the current chapter of his life is still being written.

Pink splotches—his version of cherry blossoms—dot the trees. Blue and deep purples in the tree bark speak to the colors he often sees in nature.

“I’m always drawn to the snags. There’s something so beautiful about their presence in a landscape, how they symbolize strength and adaptability. When they lose their leaves, you can see how they grew. And, even then, they contribute to the ecosystem, providing essential habitats for wildlife.”

Cooper thinks about the community experience as he works.

“Trying to understand the perspective of the other person is important to me. We may have the same experience but a different perspective,” he said. “The final piece is what someone experiences when they see a piece.

“When I sit in front of a canvas, I think about what kind of emotions, what kind of story I want to tell. It’s a meditative process. The whole thing comes to life as I create the landscape and add trees. It’s a tactile process that is very important to me. I want people to see and feel the process, to understand my journey.”