Heidi Mckay

Born and bred in Pretoria, I live with my husband Alistair and our two teenagers, Alexander and Katelyn. Growing up in an extremely creative family, I have been creating for as long as I can remember.

After studying at the University of Pretoria and getting a real job, practicing as an attorney, I gave it all up to became a mom. During that time my hobbies had become a lifeline to staying sane while raising my children, after the corporate environment I was used to. I ventured into all things creative, taught craft and scrapbooking classes for almost  15 years, studied part time and volunteered as a lay-counselor. Painting was just one of the hobbies I had, but this changed drastically during 2016 as my lifelong desire to be an artist grew stronger.

Having no formal art education, I attended art workshops, in person classes and online courses from local and  international artists to improve my skills and abilities as an artist. I’ve spend countless hours in my home studio painting and for the last two years I’ve been painting almost daily and that changed everything. 

I paint in Acrylic on canvas, canvas board and paper. Although acrylic is my first love, I also enjoy collage and mixed media.

My art is inspired by my love for colour, flowers, pattern, my collections of objects and beautiful interiors. I paint intentionally, but always follow my intuition rather than duplicating a reference photo. The subject of my art include mainly flowers, but also everyday objects, portraits, the occasional landscape and explorations into abstraction.

I have a deep faith in God and believe that I exist by His grace and mercy, and I want to glorify Him in all I do. I believe our thoughts are important and that we are what we think on. By choosing to live a life of gratitude, our experience of the ordinary becomes more meaningful, irrespective of our faith or religion.

Through my art I want to point out beauty in the mundane of everyday life. This is not naive or insignificant. We live in a space in time that is bombarded by hate, violence and darkness. By deliberately choosing beauty, love and gratitude and reflecting that in my colourful paintings, I hope to bring a smile to someone’s face, increase their quality of life by filling their space with joy and happiness and to make them believe that there is still hope. Beauty, like colour, connects with a person’s soul and I hope that my art makes that connection with people.

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