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Kevin McKay is an urban landscape painter who composes his work in the studio and en plein air. He holds a Masters in Fine Art from the National Art School and accolades include the Basil & Muriel Hooper Scholarship from the AGNSW 2006, the Sydney City of Villages Art Prize 2009, the William Fletcher Foundation’s Scholarship to The British School at Rome 2011, the Kogarah Emerging Artist Prize 2012, the Waverley Oil Painting Prize 2013, and the Allan Gamble Memorial Prize 2015.

McKay’s work responds to place and involves repeated and sustained excursions into the environment. Plein air studies inform his studio paintings, which typically depict architectural spaces where formal geometric considerations are complimented by atmospheric light. The historical is often contrasted with the contemporary in eerily empty road-based compositions that juxtapose urban transience with classical form.

Kevin currently has a studio residency in Bondi, is exhibiting at Brenda May Gallery, Danks St, Waterloo. He has taught at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Grammar School, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Waverley Woollahra Art School and the National Art School and is represented in numerous collections.

His classes cover the formal aspects of composition, perspective, modelling and mark-making in response to the built and natural environment with reference to historical and contemporary masters, and with an emphasis on utilising complimentary colours to create tonal harmony and provide the illusion of light.