We are thrilled to have Kingston artist, Michael Flahault, kick off our “Soaring Through Summer” event. Enjoy an array of unique portraits, landscapes and, yes, some aviation related works.

Michael has kindly offered MERA a wonderful painting to be raffled on August 8 at 4 pm on our one-day festival dedicated to FLIGHT, in nature, creativity and even technology.

Growing up in Paris and London, Michael was immersed in world-class art, receiving instruction from accomplished school art teachers and additional training through extracurricular classes arranged by his parents. While his early career was rooted in traditional realism, his work has since expanded to explore contemporary figurative and conceptual themes, drawing on psychology, relationships, symbolism, and the search for meaning.

As a member of the American Society of Aviation Artists (ASAA), he studied under artists including Keith Ferris, whose work is held by the Smithsonian Institution, and received multiple ASAA awards. In the early 2000s, the ASAA secured him gallery representation through Art for Life in New Jersey and New York, where limited-edition giclée prints of his watercolours were exhibited and sold.

In 2003 and 2004, the Canada Aviation Museum commissioned four watercolours for its aircraft displays. Under the patronage of General Maurice Baril, then Chief of the Defence Staff, Michael authored the proposal that became the Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP/Operation Apollo), through which artists are sponsored to document the Canadian Armed Forces worldwide. He later served as the artist representative on the program’s Selection Advisory Committee alongside representatives from the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the Canada Council for the Arts, Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Senate.

His work has been commissioned or collected by the Canada Aviation Museum, the Canadian Forces Museum of Aerospace Defence, Bell Helicopter, Execair (Innotech), SimuFlite, CAE, the Canadian Business Aircraft Association, the O’Keefe family, Guy Lafleur, and private collectors as far away as Australia.

Alongside his painting practice, Michael has spent many years as a software developer specializing in historically accurate flight simulation. Michael holds degrees in International Relations from Concordia and McGill Universities and also studied at Carleton and Kuwait Universities. His academic background continues to inform an artistic practice that seeks to unite technical craftsmanship with the exploration of ideas, inviting viewers to discover meaning through observation rather than explanation.

Artist’s statement

My paintings explore the concept between what is seen and what is understood. Working primarily in oils, I use the visual language of traditional realism to examine contemporary questions of identity, relationships, memory, faith, absence, and the quiet psychological moments that often shape our lives more profoundly than dramatic events. Rather than illustrating narratives, I’m trying to create images that invite sustained observation. Symbolic elements are often present but rarely announced. A gesture, the direction of light, an overlooked object, or the relationship between figures may suggest multiple interpretations without insisting upon a single conclusion.

I believe a painting is most rewarding when it continues to reveal itself over time. My practice draws upon both historical painting and contemporary conceptual art. I admire the technical discipline and visual poetry of the great realist traditions while embracing the idea that a painting can communicate through ambiguity as much as certainty. Beauty, craftsmanship, and intellectual curiosity are not opposing values but complementary ones. Ultimately, I hope my work encourages viewers to slow down, look carefully, and bring their own experiences to the painting. If a work raises questions rather than answers them, or reveals something new on a second or third viewing, then it has achieved what I set out to accomplish.