WALKING THE DOG - Spring Exhibition 2022

Maunsell Wickes at Barry Stern Galleries, Paddington

1 - 16 September 2022

David McKay’s most recent paintings celebrate the diverse landscapes and urban scenes he has discovered walking his dogs through the streets and parks near his home in Sydney, and beyond. As so many of us experienced during the pandemic lockdowns of the past two years, these walks encouraged him to explore his local surroundings, forging an important emotional and physical connection with nature, honoring the local flora and fauna we find all around us but so often overlook.

With his unique eye and signature sense of colour, his works combine botanical sensibility with extreme painting detail and stylistic composition. McKay continues to paint in reverse on perspex, providing a luminescent back light, referencing the fact that we see so much through a screen.

During the 5km radius restrictions we all lived through, he unearthed new perspectives on his doorstep. His painterly sketches on mount-board of Sydney Harbour seascapes are a contemporary take on postcards of a bygone era.

Further afield he has explored various elements of the wilderness, including paintings of Kangaroo Valley landscapes after the 2019 bushfires, providing a harsh reminder of the devasting impacts of climate change and the lessons we can learn from nature’s ability to regenerate.

David has been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Paddington Art Prize, there Gallipoli prize and the Salon des Refusés.