Crooke, Ray, 1922-

Ray Crooke was born in 1922, at Auburn Victoria. His family is of Anglo-Irish decent. Crooke's father studied painting and drawing at the National Gallery School in Melbourne. In 1937 he left school and took a job with an advertising agency where he was encouraged to go to art school at the Swinburne Technical School as part of his training. In 1940 he enlisted in the Militia, where he was transferred to North Queensland and Borneo. While in the army Crooke completed a correspondence course in art with the East Sydney Technical College. While waiting to be discharged, he was able to observe the people of Borneo.

It was at this time that Crooke decided to set up a studio of his own and continue painting. He returned to Swinburne in 1946 during which he held his first exhibitions. In 1949 he returned to northern Australia for a period of time, returning to Melbourne in 1951 to marry June Bethell. They both moved to Cairns where Ray painted and printed fabrics for the tourist trade. The Crookes also spent time on Thursday Island.

During the sixties, the Crooks lived in Sydney and Melbourne, making regular trips to Thursday Island, New Guinea, Cape York and Fiji. He frequently exhibited his work at the Johnstone gallery in Brisbane and the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. For Crooke, the Johnstone Gallery was pivotal to his success, beginning with his first solo exhibition there in 1960, and continuing, largely unabated, ever since. His Island Journal (Bede Publishing, 2000) is dedicated "to the memory of Brian and Marjorie Johnstone", an indication of their influence on his life as an artist. In 1978, Crooke won the Archibald Prize of the Art Gallery of New South Wales for his portrait of George Johnson.