Bio
Michele Waldron-Cooper is a fine artist based in the New Forest, Hampshire. For as long as she can remember, Michele had a natural craving to feel the sensation of using art mediums. A new pack of oil pastels look like sweets. Currently she is pushing her painting techniques, creating work that can sometimes be a rebellion of common sense. Embodying a narrative, forging and morphing a representation of an animal with every layer of paint. A distracted strand of reality we know is there in our psyche, but because of the rebellion and natural activism, her subject matter creates a ripple of fractured traction. A disturbing finality at times.
Michele can morph macabre elements to form grotesque and necrotic depictions, but at the same time she can fuse animals, humans, a pinch of intimacy, and humour with paint. An informal to be defined process. Michele went down a rabbit hole during her degree to study the gap between vision and speech. We sometimes cannot say what we see. Michele strives to create that gap for others viewing her work. This leaves a fissure for the viewer to curiously search for an explanation that does not necessarily need to be defined. Other times, she forces a connection between viewer and her work that conveys a powerfully visual language.
Darkness can sometimes create a blanket of primal emotions, a stifled scream, a gritting of your teeth or the feeling of suffocation and never being heard. The art Michele creates on one hand portrays this, but on the other hand her art defies this darkness to convey a humourous light to present a kind of antithetical approach.
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Michele has exhibited around Southampton including a Solo exhibition at the Hidden Wardrobe on the Old Northern Road since graduating and has been exhibited with the contemporary art gallery, Influx, based in Notting Hill London. Michele was also a portrait finalist in 2024 with the art magazine, Art and Colour. Michele's most recent exhibition, 'Artivist', was in June at Gallery Grounds, Southampton.
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Artist Statement
My work leans heavily towards a fantastical, disrupted, and painterly narrative with strands of realism. I am trying to paint with sensation and to free any inhibitions, letting go of overthinking and caring what others may think.
Some of the conclusions are a little disturbing, a fractured traction. Some, my humour peeks through, and others, that rebellious lack of common sense such as the fury ears in 'Gratia' spontaneously happen.
When dark humour resonates, elements can look distorted because the characteristic that fascinated me the most takes grip and holds me until I cannot breathe until it's perfect from head to paint brush.
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'To Posterity', a painting that helped to express anger and loss by referencing demonic depictions and bones painted from life. Holding a skull in one hand, and painting with the other at the same time. A technique I'm developing. Sometimes these grotesque works can affect my mental health. It is here my rebellious lack of common sense rears it's knight in shining armour head.
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Philosophy, narrative, subtle symbols and now Greek mythology help to feed into my voracious appetite with paint. Psychology needs exploring moving into the future.
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About Michele Waldron-Cooper
Since arriving on the professional scene in 2000, I’ve worked hard to capture and intrigue the art community. I gather much of my inspiration from personal experiences, the environment and cultures around the world.
Even though I create primarily for myself, my work has been well received by buyers and critics alike; a fact I don’t take lightly. If you would like to talk about working together, or if you have a specific project you would like to propose, please do not hesitate to contact me.