Coco Elder: Bejewelled

Coco Elder is an Australian artist specialising in painting and ceramics. Her early childhood experiences of weekends spent with her family in the Blue Mountains, making miniature gardens & collecting clay from the side of the road to make pots fired in the open fire, put her in touch with mother earth and helped her to resonate and connect with nature. Elder’s experience of studying Landscape Architecture sparked her interest in botany & geology and opened her perception to the delicacy of various microclimates and how this affects the lie of the land.

Following her degree in Fine Arts, majoring in Painting and Ceramics, a visit to Cezanne’s studio and Mont Sainte-Victoire in Provence, influenced the way she was able to make sense of the Australian bush.

“I began to see the triangular forms in nature that Cezanne spoke of… created by forms of foliage, branches and even spurs, gullies and ridges. The interlude between shadows and light creates a visual pattern that enable me to make sense of what might appear to be wild & unruly within nature.”

Alongside her Visual Arts high school teaching qualifications, Coco has also been a Lecturer at the College of Fine Arts (COFA) at UNSW. She now resides in Raleigh, in the Bellingen Shire where she works from her studio at home and takes her inspiration from the creeks and landscapes from Gumbaynggirr Country’s Bellinger Valley and surrounds.

Coco has been a finalist in numerous awards including the Mosman Art Prize, The Environmental Art and Design Prize, the Warringah Art Prize and Paddington Art Prize.