Michelle Courier, a graduate with a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, considers herself a realist, impressionist, and a contemporary artist with a touch of traditional. Using visible brush strokes and textures, she creates two different perspectives to enjoy and view her pieces. Up close, her paintings appear impressionistic,but from a distance, the viewer feels they are looking at a photograph.A feeling of place is what Michelle is most interested in communicating through her work, “The words that I hope to hear when someone is viewing my painting is, “I’ve been there”. I want the painting to have a feeling of familiarity, not see only the landscape before them, but ‘feel’ it.”With her love for the West, Michelle relocated from her home state of Michigan to Denver, CO in 2016 where she opened Westward Gallery. Her studio, where she creates her work, is located inside the Gallery which allows Michelle to greet those who comes into the gallery, After seven years, Michelle decided to let Westwards brick and mortar location go in October 2023 to shift her focus to full time painting.Michelle is also represented in many other galleries across the US including Emanate Gallery in South Lake Tahoe, Gallery 5830 in Truckee, CA , Blue Stone in Tahoe City, CA , Freed Gallery in Lincoln City, OR, The Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ and Western Skies Fine Art in Aston, WYMichelle has work in private and corporate collections around the world including, Chevron Corporation Headquarters ( Houston, TX ), Dow Corning ( Midland, MI ), Hong Kong Bank of China ( HSBC ), Well Fargo Headquarters ( San Fransisco, CA ), Upjohn Pharmaceuticals ( Kalamazoo, MI ), Delta College ( Saginaw, MI ), Dominos Farms Headquarters ( Ann Arbor, MI ), Mid Michigan Medical Center ( Midland, MI ), Signature Health ( Boston, MA ), Kaiser Permanente ( Denver, CO ) and The Lutheran Hospital ( Denver, CO )