The artist

Michelle
MacKinnon

Michelle is a self-taught oil painter working from a small clapboard studio on the coast of Nova Scotia. She paints the water she grew up beside — fog banks, low tides, and the long light of northern summers.

Working alla prima, she finishes each seascape in one wet-on-wet sitting, a method she credits to years of watching Bob Ross reruns before she ever picked up a brush.

Michelle MacKinnon in her Nova Scotia studio

How the work is made

01 — On the water

Reference photos and quick plein-air studies gathered along the shoreline at dawn and dusk.

02 — Wet-on-wet

The full painting is completed in a single sitting so sky and sea blend softly while the oils stay wet.

03 — Editioned

Select originals are scanned and released as small, signed archival print editions on cotton rag.

Commissions & enquiries

Michelle accepts a small number of commissioned seascapes each year, and originals are available directly from the studio.