Michelle Cochrane
About
Michelle Jane Cochrane is an Australia artist who has been living and working in Far north Queensland for the past 17 years, originally from New South Wales, she moved to the Northern Rivers region of the Tweed Valley in 2018, where she fell in love with the endless shorelines and fresh mountain air, both inspirations for her fine art digital photography.
Michelle has been engaged in art for over 40 years, self-taught, Michelle has expressed her artist flare previously through watercolor and interior design.
Unique Attributes: What & Where & When
Michelle captures her fleeting images at the water’s edge, this is where the magic happens! As the ocean recedes and the sun rises over the horizon, it casts silhouettes and contours along the intertidal zone. As the water ebbs and flows and the elements deposit marooned flotsam and jetsam, it leaves behind transient tidal etchings and patterns, individually sculpted out of sand, shadows, textures and drift lines, each with a story to tell, unspoken engraved along the shoreline. You can view her unique perspective in the digital art portfolio in collections.
How
Each print gives you the opportunity to have your own unique experience with her artwork, over and over again. They portray ambiguous illusions, more specifically where your brain switches between alternative interpretations, when looked at from different angles or perspectives. This technique enables her to embellish nature’s own printing process known as ‘phytoglyphy’ to create unimaginable limited edition prints on high quality Canvas and German etching paper, each with its unique certificate of authenticity and creative visual narrative, to stir your emotions, and encourage you to explore the image for yourself. All images are sourced along the local shorelines and estuaries and crafted at the Drift n Tides studio.
Her collections are part of a recent series of prints, celebrating nature's dynamic everchanging shift in time and space.
Some clear themes have emerged in her Coastal artworks: Otherworldly and extraordinary.
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Shivers - Butterflies and bugs
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Biomorphic - Earthly creatures and landscapes
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Entities - Sentient lifeforms
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Intertidal - Seascapes
Why
Michelle has both a biological sciences and business background and has spent many years exploring nature. She has been inspired by First Nation culture that she has been privileged to experience. She feels a special bond with nature and has learnt to stop and pay attention to the sights and sounds that it has to offer. Her unique images open the door to a new way to view nature's infinite experiences. This form of graphic fine art print allows her to connect in a spiritual and meaningful way, where new patterns and fresh dimensions appear telling their own story and seeks an understanding of those harmonious interconnected relationships.
Her tidal prints enable each of us to share in the air of mystery and magic of nature that exists right on the fringes of our daily lives, to reflect and take pleasure in the transient nature of awareness and unity that surrounds us, and keep a snap shot to remind ourselves, of how lucky we are to have the natural landscape we live in.
Acknowledgement of Country
Statement of acknowledgement of the Bundjalung Aboriginal Nation on which we work and live. I wish to recognise the generations of the local Aboriginal people of the Bundjalung Nation who have lived in and derived their physical, spiritual and cultural needs from the forests, rivers, lakes and waterways over many thousands of years as the traditional owners and custodians of these lands. Also acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, I have had the privilege to work with, paying my respects to your Elders, past, present and emerging.
Self promotion:
Her favorite artform is Eclectic deriving ideas, styles from a range of sources over the years, allowing her to explore the intersection of nature with everyday life in her photography and prints. She connects with the art community via the local art cooperative.
Her work has been on show
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At ‘Made in Mullum’ in Mullumbimby
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More recently she held a Private Exhibition in Chillingham Murwillumbah November 2021.
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She currently has a selection of her peices on display at Jo & Co Collective in Murwillumbah.
BLOG - SHIFTING SANDS
On the Blog Michelle shares with you, some more in-depth information about her fine art prints, the source of her photography and the intrepid inspiration behind her prints that has lead her to a path of artistic discovery. You will find interesting facts and images sprinkled throughout each story. She says 'She has really enjoyed creating every single print, each print has a little bit of me embedded in each design'. Click on the Blog to view Posts and join in the conversation.
NEWSLETTER - TIDAL CHATTER
You can subscribe to the Newsletter Tidal Chatter, to see upcoming offers and Art Alerts, before New Collections arrive on the website.
She works primarily with nature's vignettes, capturing distinctive tidal etchings through her photography highlighting the layers of light, colors and shadows saturated in the sand with precision and intent, unlocking the patterns and textures. Transforming them utilizing computer graphics into fluid artistic images, each image representing a fleeting snapshot of nature in time, that can be swept away in seconds by the very next wave, leaving behind a fresh canvas, for the next transient creation.