[5][6] Only vague details of his early life are known, but according to Mackenzie's History of Newcastle (1827), he went to sea at a young age, and spent three years on a transport sailing between ports in Spain and Portugal.

[8][9] Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he devoted all his spare time to art, and eventually gave up the carpentry business, setting himself up as a drawing-master and miniature painter.

[7] By 1831, when Carmichael was living in Blackett Street, Newcastle, he had 18 works included in the annual exhibition of the Northern Academy of Arts, 14 of which were landscapes.

His painting of the bombardment of Sveaborg, which he witnessed during this assignment, was exhibited at the Royal Academy and is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum.

[20] William Bell Scott, who knew the artist well, noted that he earned "a good deal of money" from the sale of smaller paintings, which were in high demand.

[2][6] In an obituary published in the Art Journal, he was described as "[g]ifted with an eye of rare accuracy and a hand ready in the delineation of form".