After studying architecture at the University of Melbourne, he settled in England where he worked as a production designer in the film industry for ten years before devoting himself to painting.
His main subject is the female nude, its magnetic and hieratic sensuality - although he has also painted several series of landscapes. Flirting with eroticism, Michael Bastow displays a repertoire of lazy, equivocal or provocative poses. Sometimes present in the form of a self-portrait in his composition, he expresses the ambivalent relationship between the artist and his models.
He mainly works with pastels and charcoal on handmade papers. His process consists in making a first study that he then pins to the studio wall. After a period of maturation, which can last weeks or years, he might rework or transform it completely by extracting some fragments to make collages into other drawings.
In 2000, Michael Bastow bought the Saint Alexis Chapel in Malaucène. Over the years, it has become a monumental project of ephemeral frescos celebrating the seven ages of woman: a place for experience and sensual combinations with African fetishes, Byzantine icons and Renaissance art.
His work is part of the public collections of the Frac Franche-Comté and of the Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain (MAMAC) in Liège.