Michelle Fleur Studio Blog

This morning, on a whim (because that's how I roll), I decided to detach myself from social media for the rest of May. I can't say exactly why I felt the urge to say goodbye today, suffice to say that when I looked up from my morning phone session 3 hours had passed since I'd woken up and I had crossed nothing off of my day's 'To Do' list. Yes, I realised that I had fallen into that murky abyss of scrolling on autopilot and following rabbit holes through multiple online store

April, thus far, has been a wholly whimsical month in my neck of the woods. Rainy days have dominated and many mornings I have woken to the hills covered in mist and fog, their bumpy silhouettes rising like lavender-grey monoliths from the wet earth. In weather like this I can't help but open myself up to the mysteries of life, let my mind wander into the dark corners of the abyss and adventure into the rabbit holes that emerge on long thought trails. I have spent countless h

Every time I sit down to write in my blog I marvel at how much time has passed since my last post. So much for a weekly writing practice in 2019! I should know better than to make any New Years resolutions! So, it is the first day of the third month of 2019 already and I have to say that it has been a pleasant, calm and peaceful couple of months. I have slid right into an easy momentum and created a routine that consists of gardening, painting, basket making, and domesticity.

The weather was a bit miserable last week. It was meant to be warm and Spring-like but instead it was mostly cold, wet and a little dour. I like to get out and about for a while every day but last week's dreariness had me stuck inside and by Thursday afternoon I was getting a bit of cabin fever. So, I decided late Thursday evening that I needed some serious nature time pronto. What did I do? Well, I went to hang with the whales the very next morning! Yay! I'm very lucky that

A couple of weeks ago I had the great pleasure of running another whale painting workshop through the awesome creative space Workshop Freo. This was my second workshop with them and it was just as wonderful as the first. But the absolute best thing about it was that there was the option to combine it with a morning whale watching tour with the best whale watchers around, Whale Watch Western Australia. Of course, I wasn't going to miss out on the whale watching fun and I had

Well, well, well. Gosh and wow. Oh my stars! Holy mackerel! I'm EXCITED people! "Why", I hear you ask? Because I just had the most extraordinary experience with a beautiful Southern Right whale! I mean, it was truly something amazing and the sheer awesomeness and thrill of it is still coursing through my bones. Oh oh oh, it was up there as one of the most magical moments of my life - like running into a grizzly in Yellowstone, or lying under Wave Rock on a clear night looking

Since finishing the 200 Whales Project last year I have felt that I needed something else to balance out the love received/love given ratio of my art practice. I needed to do something that gave my studio practice more meaning. Inspiration came recently when I attended a talk by the legendary primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall. There was much that moved me about her message, but what struck me most was the idea that we all need to be contributing when it comes to

On June 4 I celebrated my 40th birthday the best way I know how - on the water with a bunch of big, beautiful, rambunctious humpback whales! Truly, I could not think of a more perfect way for me to spend the day. We saw so many whales that I lost count and there was much activity on the water as groups of males tousled and fought for female attention. We saw some epic battles, with slaps and shoves and loud vocalisations. I'd never seen this kind of behaviour before on a whal

The single most asked question I receive about my work is ‘Why whales?’ Why indeed! I mean, I could be painting birds, or marsupials, or bears. But no, my subject of choice is whales and cetaceans – the big, buoyant giants of the seas! Firstly, let it be known that I love whales. I mean, I am really taken with these creatures. I have fallen for their charms hook, line and sinker. And the wonderful thing is, that the more I learn about them, the more I fall for them. They are

I turn 40 in about a week's time - 40! Oh my lawdy, lawd, lawd, waaaah! It feels momentous and far more significant an age than any that has come before. This feeling of importance is completely arbitrary of course, but I never 'imagined' 40, I never thought about what it would be like to be this age when I was young. I probably didn't think I would even make it this far! I certainly thought that 40 was super old. Haha, how time has a way of changing our minds! Anyway, I feel