Float I is part of a series of four works painted by Michelle Hungerford in response to a letter by Arthur Streeton to Theodore Fink describing the boat ride he and Tom Roberts took to get to Curlew Camp in the 1890s. The boat then features in Mosman Bay, Tom Roberts’ painting of the scene. The boat in Roberts’ painting appears to float in the air, such is the clarity of the water. This feeling is conveyed in Hungerford’s own painting, an homage to Roberts’ painting and Streeton’s vivid description of an idyllic moment.