Michele Marcoux is a contemporary painter based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her work explores memory, story, and place through landscape, drawing inspiration from remote and abandoned locations. Rooted in painting, her practice also expands into installation, video, and collaborative projects.
Outdoors, she takes an improvisational approach, responding directly to nature and her surroundings. Bringing this work to the studio, she integrates found objects, images, video, and installation. The narratives and imagery, which appear in her work, are influenced by film, literature and myth. Histories of displacement, ghost stories and the experience of being an identical twin inform her work. Through this process, she looks for overlaps of personal and collective memory, reciprocities of story and form.
Residencies and awards
In 2024, Michele was awarded an RSA Residency for Scotland which will take place on the Isle of Lewis in May 2025. She received a Connect and Collaborate grant from the British Council (2021-22) for Ecologies of Displacement, a collaborative residency connecting artists in Scotland and Pakistan. Additionally, in 2021, she received a Creative Scotland Open Fund grant to support her residency at Merz Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland.
New work available
A series of 12 acrylic and oil paintings are now available in my online shop. I made some of them on location in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, during time on residency at Merz Gallery. Others were made in reference to memories or from direct observation of real places.
My practice often begins in the landscape
Working outdoors is essential to my artistic practice. I often walk into remote landscapes and abandoned places, carrying only the materials I need. This spontaneous approach allows me to work with minimal supplies, responding directly to my surroundings and developing ideas quickly. Each landscape—whether a hilltop in Spain or my garden in Edinburgh—opens up new possibilities, and shapes the direction of my work.
Michele is an active member of several professional organizations, including:
Scottish Artists Union
Scottish Society of Artists
Visual Arts Scotland
Scottish Contemporary Art Network
Studio 1.1, London
She regularly exhibits her work in Scotland and London.