Journey of Water | 2016

Journey of Water

By Elli Walsh

Bruny Island-based artist Michaye Boulter creates virtuosic seascapes inspired by the Australian coastline and the sublimity of the infinite ocean. Having spent much of her life afloat with her fisherman father and seafarer husband, Boulter draws from a fertile wellspring of inspiration, experience and knowledge. Her paintings chart the paradoxical vastness and intimacy of the sea, channelling unfiltered memories that reveal a psychological symbiosis with the natural world. The artist’s evocative seascapes are gradually built up over time with a multitude of glazes, creating a depth and luminosity reflective of the layers of mystery that shroud the depths of the ocean. Boulter’s new series of paintings charts a dichotomous journey from the wild, unpredictable ocean to the calm, intricate channels of Port Davey – a trip travelled by the artist several times fishing with her father, and more recently with her husband and son.

‘Leaving the sheltered bays and rounding the headlands toward the south coast we sense the change; a new uninhabited land of cliffs and crashing waves. We feel privy to the secret rhythms of this timeless yet ever-changing coastline. I find myself questioning why I’m so drawn to this place of opposites, of harmony and disharmony, simplicity and complexity, intimacy and distance, but as we round the Southwest Cape, I feel the sharp cold winds of the Antarctic, and my thoughts give way to exhilaration. Guarding Port Davey are strange islands rising abruptly from the ocean. As we move through them we leave one world and enter another. I am confronted by the vastness of this internal belly of water, entranced by its silvery calm and the layers of misty land that contain it. Exploring the multitude of channels and inlets, I’m drawn ever deeper into this ancient and mysterious place. I feel disoriented yet safe, anticipating where each bend and turn may lead us. As the landscape envelops me and the mist blurs reality, my thoughts turn to memories and dreams. I’m struck by how different this place is to the wild seas and coastline outside its gates.’

‘Journey of Water’ explores the physical nuances of these two diametric bodies of water and their affiliation with the artist’s emotional and psychological landscape. Some depict vast and vacant oceans, their distant, hazy horizon like an endless void, while others are anchored with brooding landmasses – ancient, omniscient faces scarred with the ragged marks of time. For Boulter, the unbridled ocean and the calm, mysterious depths of the channel have come to represent the internal and the external, the human heart and the world around us. This silent synchronicity between the physical world and the human psyche is conjured through Boulter’s meticulous layering of paint, which allows the artist to ‘listen’ until she feels a truth is revealed, some hidden aspect of self and place. Working from photographs, memory and imagination, Boulter chooses images that have profound personal resonance – emotionally stirring scenes ripe with possibility and mystery. Moving through these sublime point-of-view vignettes is the ubiquitous horizon, a relentless reminder of continuum of existence that propels us infinitely forward.