Cross-Pollination, my latest solo exhibition opens at FLG, Melbourne 17th Oct - 11 Nov 2023.
Opening Celebration Saturday 21st Oct 1-3pm

For more info please VISIT: FLG

Cross-Pollination is a series of works, conceived in different places, and imagined while crossing the Nullarbor Plain. They carry the remnants of prior experience, the current physicality of place and the emotive effects of memory. Ideas that emerge from your sub-conscious while you are in the process of painting is a precious thing to hold onto.

2023 has been a year of some disruption, big projects, and momentous occasions. Interspersed with seasonal farm commitments, time has been spent on the road, traversing from the south-west of WA to Tasmania and back again, with a central Australia painting intensive thrown in.

I can only paint what is inside of me at the time and works thought/dreamed of in one place become about another, a process of transference; memory, feeling, nostalgia. A cross-pollination of ideas emerges within the process of painting; responding to the physicality of paint & surface with tension, colour, harmony, surprise.

Melissa Boughey - August 2023

After Termite Wonders 2023, was recently selected as a finalist in the City of Melville Art Awards 2023

The opening night is Friday 20th Oct 6-8pm, if you are interested in attending you'll find info HERE

We welcome your visit to our latest exhibition
from the Butter Factory Studios Collective:
WONDERGROUND
CO-Curated by Melissa Boughey and Helmie van Melle
Works include: ceramics, installation, painting, mixed media, print, and textiles with each artist investigating the topic in a unique and thoughtful way!
Now open until Sunday 8th October.
We will be having exhibition celebrations on Sunday 1st October 3-5PM
HOPE TO SEE YOU THEN!

Harmonics in the wetlands (Spring Moments)I
mixed media on canvas
100 x 80

Selection for the City of Stirling Art Awards 2023

Thrilled to share with you my latest exhibition:
Destination Unknown

The painting process is not dissimilar to the roadtrip, and must be met with a sense of adventure, curiosity and wonder. In each instance the destination is not a given, so tangents must be explored, and paths taken that lead you somewhere unexpected.

In this series of works I had ideas about exploring my backyard and further afield; day trips and over-nighters. However, with the constraints that manifested in 2022, I had to delve into my own sense of self and appreciate what was close to hand. On the farm in which I have spent most of my adult years we overlook a wetlands area. It is ever-present - the light, moods, reflections - change both by the season, and by the minute.

My springboard to new works was to start at home base and to go from there. Accessible places that I could easily return to. More exciting places called to me but I had to sit with this notion and let it reveal itself to me. I am drawn to these coastal heathlands, inlet, estuary, and wetlands on my doorstep.

Small sketches reminded me about form; on-site works allowed me to soak in the atmosphere. In the studio I had to trust the process; that I had within me whatever the work needed to progress.

On the canvas I wanted to incorporate a variety of texture, speed, transparency and opaqueness. To shift in gear between calm and meditative, and physical and robust. Some works revealed themselves to me gently, others took me to the edge and back.

Without an endpoint in mind, the destination was unknown. And this was quite liberating.

Getting very excited about this (and a teeny bit worried that we might have another COVID lockdown and no-one will see it)!

Online now!

SMALL WONDER:

I live and work on a farm on the south west corner of WA. Although I do have beautiful scenery on my doorstep I have an innate desire to be enveloped by a different landscape. It allows me to see things fresh, for my retina to get a tune up, to find a new tempo to my way of working. Working plein air is a little like bootcamp for your mark making and puts all your senses on high alert.

I recently went on a road trip from WA, crossing the Nullarbor, and into the Ikara-Flinders Ranges. As you drive through the landscape you can feel the stress and tension dissipate, you become present, in the moment. Drawing reinforces this feeling of being present; a mindfulness meditation if you like. To pay attention. It takes some time to get a feel for a new environment, so I take notes, a kind of shorthand drawing: what tempo does it have? And there are many failed attempts at pulling the elements together, but I hope to create a memory, a physicality, that I will remember later.

Once back in the studio I may not make specific paintings of place but more an amalgamation of felt experience. In fact I sometimes do set out to make a particular work but in the process of painting I am taken on quite a different path. I start with an idea and am taken on a journey, a kind of rollercoaster of despair and awe, I am learning to watch this process from a slight distance from my self talk, to trust in the process, although this isn’t always easy. If it feels too contrived, or hasn’t challenged me enough I may bring in a troublesome element to shift the focus.

The act of going on a roadtrip and coming back has the added benefit of seeing my home environment anew! Particularly, I can appreciate the plant life, biodiversity, autumn colours. I keep coming back to wetlands and how important they are for the health of our rivers and inlets. Paperbarks, especially, resonate with me.

For some years I have been interested in this fleeting feeling of oneness that one might grasp when held enthral to nature: a quiet sense of contemplation, when time slows down, worries vanish and we are deeply present.

Eutierria - from eu (good), tierra (the earth), ia (you), was coined by sustainability professor Glenn Albrecht, and describes this euphoric sense of being at one with nature, with a feeling of peace and connectedness.

It is now more important than ever to tune into our natural environment, to feel moments of awe - whether walking, swimming, catching the light of dawn, and furthermore, if I can inspire someone else to appreciate our landscape, or feel a moment of joy, then I feel I have contributed.

I've been selected as a finalist in this year's Muswellbrook Art Prize for:

Tree Symphony
oil on canvas
135 x 112
SOLD

I'm thrilled to now be represented by the experienced team at Flinders Lane Gallery who recently celebrated 30 years in the industry.

Please contact Claire direct with any enquiries.

FLG is a contemporary art gallery in the heart of Melbourne, located on Level 1 of the Nicholas Building at the corner of Flinders Lane and Swanston Street. The gallery has been championing the practices of emerging, mid-career and established Australian artists since its inception in 1989. The FLG stable is unified by a commitment to presenting high quality, exceptional artworks that demonstrate conceptual rigour, technical expertise and creative sensitivity.

We hope you can join us for our exhibition opening in Fremantle WA

you can find more info HERE:

"In the lush Melbourne suburb of Toorak, local interior design firm GOLDEN has transformed a 1960s home into an abode the befits its owners’ creative flair. Inspired by the notion of ‘liveable artistry’, the existing architectural characteristics and the clients’ art collection, the design team conceived a design narrative that would spark curiosity and joy. ‘Our clients wanted to be bold and have beautiful elements throughout their home, particularly in the finishes like the green marble floor. Our design needed to be classic yet contemporary, finding a balance between colour and pattern while still feeling timeless,’ Alicia McKimm, director of GOLDEN, explains.

The clients prioritise a balance between function and an art-led aesthetic. Their art collection takes pride of place in home, displayed alongside family photographs and sentimental items, with furnishing and objects selected to complement the work. The colours and brushstrokes of Melissa Boughey’s Interior Track to Waterfall, for example, inspired a custom-made Grazia & Co ottoman in Kelly Wearstler fabric.

Read the full article by Babette Radcliffe-Thomas here: Design Anthology
Images by Sharyn Cairns

New exhibition opens at BOOM Gallery Geelong, VIC
August 15 - Sept 8 2019
opening celebrations Saturday 17th Aug 1-3pm

Melissa’s current body of work speaks of a life lived on the land, an intimate connection with both the wild and tamed landscapes in her close daily interactions of living and working on a farm and revegetating native habitat. Ocean swimming, walking the dog, and drawing plein-air in the paperbark wetlands (a stones throw from her studio) are some of these deeply resonant & immersive experiences.

Whilst researching for this current exhibition, Melissa was looking for a term to describe a fleeting feeling of oneness that one might grasp when held enthral to nature: a quiet sense of contemplation, when time slows down, worries vanish and we are deeply present. Eutierria - from eu (good), tierra (the earth), ia (you), was coined by sustainability professor Glenn Albrecht, and describes this euphoric sense of being at one with nature, with a feeling of peace and connectedness. For Melissa, this happens when she works outside and responds to the sensory environment.
“My process begins with an immersion in the landscape; jotting notes; scribbling responses; and creating a shorthand code for the natural environment.”

Opening 6th October 6-8pm Turner Galleries ENGINE ROOM @ William St Northbridge - Hope you can come!

Melissa Boughey describes her work as “an annotation of landscape, a shorthand writing, a synthesis of experience.”

Time spent immersed in the landscape, drawing en plein air, is intrinsic to her experience and provides the framework for the development of paintings in her bush studio, located on the Kent River near Denmark. Cross Country is a multilayered response to her intimate connection with land and interpretation of place. The daily dog walk, a recent camping trip, the feeling of the desert, are all experiences that may come to the fore and be ripe for excavation.

The end result is a very elegant and refined response to her environment.

PREVIEW WORK HERE

Pretty chuffed to have my work profiled on The Design Files. Story by Elle Murrell, photos by Bo Wong.

you can read it HERE

Showing together for the first time, emerging West Australian artists Melissa Boughey and Andy Quilty present a diverse body of new works exploring ideas around identity, sense of place, and connection to the land.
Opening this Saturday 8th April at 6pm, with an artist talk/demo prior at 5pm. If you are in town please come and visit.
see catalogue here Close to Home
Margaret River Gallery
Shop 4/1 Charles St West
Margaret River WA

As you may know I live on a farm in the southwest of Western Australia, where I have a studio that overlooks our vineyard and wetlands.

I have lived here since completing my fine art degree in 1994 and I love the quiet rural existence that I share with my partner and 3 sons. I exhibit my work and sell through our Moombaki cellar door, the Butter Factory Studios in Denmark (a co-operative of 10 of which I am a member) and Margaret River Gallery.

For some time I have been thinking that I really need to stretch myself and exhibit my work more widely. Thanks to instagram I can connect with other artists and get a feel for galleries that I otherwise wouldn't be able to access. I discovered a beautifully curated space in Sydney called Small Spaces. I plucked up some courage and asked them to take a look at my work.

I do find self-promotion rather difficult and I have to counter a lot of interfering doubt to push through the discomfort. So I was chuffed when Sarah said she loved my work and would love to show it in Sydney. It might seem like a small step, but actually it is a bit leap of faith in my self-belief and that I am doing the work I am meant to be doing.

It also makes me excited for what else might be waiting around the corner in the future.

Exploring New Territories and New Artists

13 Artists from Margaret River Gallery come to Fremantle.

I'm thrilled to be part of this show at Bathers Beach, Fremantle. I'll be showing a couple of my larger paintings and a new triptych drawing.

Can't wait to see the show!

So excited to be involved in this year's event!

AOHF is an annual community event where art is shown and sold in private homes in Fremantle, WA.

AOHF aims to make affordable art accessible to everyone.

Each November Fremantle residents volunteer their gorgeous homes so that our carefully curated selection of emerging and established artists can show their art in a domestic context. It is also an opportunity to meet the artists, many of whom help at the homes.

Take our short self-guided walking trail where, for small donation, volunteers will welcome you inside select Fremantle homes to see and buy artwork by local and interstate artists.

Here is the Event Guide

I've been invited to exhibit with Nyisztor Studio in Perth for SCENE:
an exhibition to showcase a selection of WA’s art practice to
the public.

I'm sending in this one: 2 weeks in the desert

Totem:
A reverence for,
and feeling of,
being within the landscape.
Emotive response to
the inherent spirit of place:
a rapt ode to being

Notation Finke to Dolomite Walk NT
42 x 180 - 6 panels
mixed media on paper

Finalist in the Paul Guest Drawing Prize
Bendigo Art Gallery

Honoured to be selected for this esteemed drawing prize.

Recently I undertook a field trip to Central Australia. I’d been harbouring yearnings for the desert for 3 years. I was amazed by the diversity, the ranges, the geological time etched in strata.

I drew as we walked, as I was driven, whenever we stopped, wherever we camped. I was rewriting my experience of landscape (having lived and worked on the south coast of WA for 20 years) and I was so astounded by the inherent beauty.

These drawing were done plein air at the camping site near Uluru - it was a breathtaking experience to be there.

Inspired by my recent trip to Central Australia - this work was recently shortlisted for the Brisbane Art Prize!

Butter Factory Studios Denmark WA

As park of Denmark Arts Brave New Works Program, the BFS artists have been set a challenge (by missus!) to create 20 works on paper in 20 days ...

50% proceeds will be donated to Carad (Coalition for refugees and detainees WA)

Here is a sample of my work - you can find more on my instagram account :melissa_boughey_art

PS This exhibition was such a success (we raised $2,500+ and all the artists enjoyed the challenge) that we are going to make it an annual event!

Keep posted!

I wish I could go with them ....

These 3 little oil on paper are heading over to Tasmania to the Colville Gallery for the Lloyd Rees Landscape Prize - I'm a finalist!

Travels along the south coast 2015
oil on paper
25 x 25
individually framed

STOP PRESS:
Also received a Highly Commended Award!

In the silence of the moment the shadow of the memory remains 2014
mixed media and encaustic on arches paper
40 x 50

I've been thinking it's time to get out there again and submit work to a few select exhibitions. I was encouraged to enter the Mandorla and was really happy to get selected amongst a small group of quality finalists - the opening is in Perth so I might even get to this one ....

I'm just going to keep on my path, working towards exhibitions, art awards, build my CV and one day be in a position to apply for a residency!

wetlands by tributary
oil on canvas
120 x 150

I also submitted this work to the Fleurieu Peninsula Water Prize and was selected as a finalist and also awarded a Highly Commended!

wetlands by canoe
oil on canvas
120 x 150

It actually took a bit of procrastination, a lot of guts and a big jump off a cliff (that's what it felt like at the time).

But when I got selected as a finalist I was overjoyed (perhaps a few tears and a little jig!)

See folks sometimes you gotta take the plunge ...

Anyway I feel so honoured to get this type of validation for my work from the art establishment ... you see I work in isolation on the most part, I live in a fairly secluded spot on the far south west coast of WA, so putting my art out there to get judged by a pretty selective bunch and to achieve shortlisting does help on the days when I'm struggling with the paint!