Michelle Brayshaw

Michelle Brayshaw

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Biography

Michelle has been a Visual Art teacher for twenty-four years. She holds Post Graduate qualifications in Creative Arts and has numerous qualifications in Arts Disciplines including Interior Design and Fashion Design. From 2001 to 2004, Michelle sold silver jewellery in outlets in Port Douglas, Kuranda and Cairns.

She has participated in three exhibitions throughout Queensland and in 2015, published “Reef Fishes”, a photographic underwater book, with New Holland Publishers. 

Michelle is a Cairns resident, perfectly adapted to the tropical lifestyle this region brings.

Her upbringing encouraged conservation and instilled in her a love for nature. She has spent hundreds of hours underwater with her camera, capturing moments which would otherwise be lost in an ephemeral memory.

For many years, she has been developing her aesthetic style, first with acrylics and now with oils. In her artist statement she says:

“I have developed a deep love and passion for our beautiful region and consider myself blessed that I live with the beautiful Daintree Rainforest and The Great Barrier Reef at my doorstep. My paintings have been inspired by my camera lens.

What I photograph underwater is transferred to the canvas, only that I combine and change the work, in order to compose what I see and feel underwater. I choose to paint the fish realistically because they are already artwork.

Artwork which, due to its natural beauty, gives the audience insight into this underwater world and prompts reaction for its survival. For when we discover the beauty of our reef, we discover motivation and engender in the community, a positive attitude towards its preservation.”

Michelle is an Australian Marine Conservation Society and Rainforest Rescue Supporter, a Citizen of the Great Barrier Reef and a contributor to Eye on the Reef, an initiative of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority.