28/03/2026
Note from Michelle Boyle, Artist in Residency,
“Does a space affect the art you produce ?’
I think this comes down to the intent or desperation of the artist to create..
If you NEED to make art , you will make it anywhere.
At a kitchen table, in a garden shed or a prison cell. I worked as an artist in residence in a prison and saw the most exquisite watercolours by a long term inmate made in a 10 ft sq cell without a window.
So in truth, art can be made anywhere and with anything, scratched with fingernails onto a cave wall.
But, when the space is generous, immersed in nature and the elements , the mind closes down and the heart is caught ‘off guard and blown open’ ( Seamus Heaney - ‘Postscript’)
And it is a gift to the artist to experience this wildness of nature and to carry the memory of it into their future work
The house is such a place, high on a ridge, in a place of outstanding natural beauty with every
window drawing the eye to the outside and to the meander of Lake Khadakwasla
My studio in Ireland is in a rural area beside Lough Ramor in Cavan where I swim year round and work on the intersection of art / science and water activism. I contribute to shared experiences of the human nature relationship with The Living Water Museum & ISSER Pune . I became interested
in Khadakwasla Lake as a life supporting presence in the landscape, like my Lough Ramor.”
_Michelle
