From the age of 2, when she sailed with her parents from Australia to Canada, MichayeBoulter’s life has never been far from the sea.
Spending weeks at a time in her childhood sailing on the ocean spending time staring out at that vastness, Michaye’s very being is connected with the water.
So it’s no surprise that she paints what she knows. In her recent show, ‘Shelter’, at Sydney’s Arthouse Gallery, her works of Tasmanian seascapes were breathtaking. They depict the Australian coastlines and ocean often with no sign of human life when the sun is not out in full force, creating a low light which darkens the land making the sky and the water the main players in her work.
We talk about her childhood memories but also about her current work and studio practice. Notably she’s been a finalist in the prestigious Glover landscape prize 7 times as well as many others. She’s had 20 solo shows and her work is also held in various public and private collections around Australia, including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and Parliament House, Canberra.
We start this conversation at a time when Michaye was just 2 years old when her parents built a boat when they were living in Brisbane in Queensland and they decided to take the family back to Canada with Michaye and her baby sister on board. It would be the start of a childhood of travel and life on the sea.
