Below is a portfolio of the latest artwork by Michele Marcoux. Please click the images for details of projects.
I often begin paintings in the landscape, using video to document and discover new ideas. Each painting is an individual work but also part of an unfolding process in the studio or in collaboration with others. My work often starts with a story, perhaps a personal memory, perhaps the history of the place I am working in. This is the beginning of a process of searching for reciprocities of story and form. Through experimenting with materials, oil, gouache, collage, found objects and images I am trying to locate a place where personal and collective memories overlap.
Residencies
Residencies play a crucial role in my artistic practice. They provide inspiration and allow me to conduct research on location. I developed many of the projects in this portfolio as the result of artist residencies.
In 2023, I embarked on a solo journey to Aragon, Spain, for a self-directed residency. I worked in the countryside outside Jaca, a medieval town in the Pyrenees. During this time, I also explored Bergosa, a 1,200-meter-high abandoned hill village. Established around the year 900, Bergosa was forcibly depopulated in 1966 to make way for a dam project in Pamplona. The site’s haunting history and evocative ruins deeply influenced my work.
From 2021 to 2022, I participated in Ecologies of Displacement, an international residency between Scotland and Pakistan, funded through the British Council and Creative Scotland Connect and Collaborate Fund. Through the Fund, artists and organisations based in Scotland applied for grants to work with international peers and develop innovative residency projects.
In 2021, I also received a Creative Scotland grant for a residency at Merz Gallery in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. In October 2019, I attended a residency at The Museum of Loss and Renewal in Collemacchia, Italy to develop my project Casser Maison.
Looking ahead, in May 2025, I will travel to the Isle of Lewis for a Royal Scottish Academy Residency for Scotland. Partnering with the arts organization An Lanntair, I will work on location in the landscape and at a croft house. This residency will allow me to further explore themes of personal and collective memory.
