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In her work, Jess Cochrane explores themes of connectivity and friendship, drawing from personal experiences to create compositions that resonate deeply with viewers. Her paintings depict familiar, relatable scenes, capturing the joy and intimacy of shared moments.
Through the dynamic movement of her brushstrokes, Cochrane conveys a sense of spontaneity and natural ease.
“I am not trying to make ‘loud’ works,” Cochrane explains. “Nothing in the way I work has any element of overthinking; I allow everything to come naturally. That’s why I am drawn to leisure scenes: they are peaceful, natural moments, not forced or artificial.”
Her exhibition It Won’t Last Forever reflects on our impulse to freeze fleeting moments, especially through digital photography and social media, as we attempt to immortalise them. Cochrane touches on consumerist habits and the passage of time, highlighting the transient nature of both moments and objects. Her compositions often include subtle details of personal indulgence—like food, drinks, or cigarettes—while her still lifes feature objects of consumption, such as a bowl of tangerines or a burning candle.
To explore these ideas, Cochrane participates in the same digital cycle, using reference images taken on her phone, which she then brings to life through paint. This interplay between the physical and digital worlds is central to her art, offering a pause from the constant digital presence and grounding the viewer in the present moment. Her brushwork captures the immediacy of the ‘now’, showcasing the unique power of paint over digital imagery.
Cochrane’s figurative scenes often include phones, symbolising both their role in preserving special moments and their tendency to pull us away from the present. Her still life compositions further explore digital consumption and the excess of photo-taking, intentionally composed to mimic the stiffness of Instagram’s square format.
It Won’t Last Forever is a poignant meditation on memory, technology, and human experience. Melding the influence of Impressionist masters with modern consumerism and digital culture, Cochrane offers a profound commentary on the ephemeral nature of contemporary life. Her work also draws from Australian artist Grace Cossington Smith, who, like Cochrane, found inspiration in Impressionism, forming a sentimental connection between their artistic and personal journeys.
In a nod to modern technology’s flaws, Cochrane incorporates the distortions caused by phone cameras into her paintings, subtly commenting on how technology distorts our perception of reality. This recalls the work of Cézanne, who prioritised composition over proportion—particularly evident in Cochrane’s bathing scenes—and whose influence can be seen in her approach.
Through her nuanced brushwork, Cochrane captures the fleeting beauty of everyday moments, encouraging viewers to reflect on the impact of technology on our lives. In doing so, she not only honours the tradition of painting but redefines its relevance in today’s fast-paced, digital world.
Artist: Jess Cochrane
