I make detailed drawings using a ballpoint pen. My work is about people, places, memories and dreams, and the way these blur together over time. I like the ballpoint pen because it’s so ordinary. It’s an everyday tool that everyone has, and I enjoy seeing what it can do when used slowly and carefully. Each drawing is built up by hand, line by line.

The materials matter a lot to me. I often work on raw canvas and leave it exposed so you can see its texture and grain alongside the drawing. I want the work to feel physical and real.

My work draws on the natural world and on places I know or remember. I’m interested in the space between the real and the imagined. Landscapes are often familiar but slightly strange, the way places appear in memory or in dreams.

In 2018, McKay completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Art at the University of South Australia and in 2019 received the inaugural John Christie Wright Memorial Prize for Painting. McKay completed her Honours year of a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Theory at The Australian National University in 2020, receiving First Class Honours.

McKay is held in both private and public collections within Australia.

b. 1995
Based in Melbourne, Australia