Press Statement
Distinction Gallery Presents "Natural Beauty", a solo show featuring local Escondido artist Heather McKey.
The exhibition will include 10-15 new Acrylic paintings featuring Heather's pain staking rendering technique. The paintings will be of creatures McKey dreams up using beautiful elements from mature to creative birds, seahorses, and other fantastical creatures. Distinction Gallery has represented McKey for 3 years and is proud to have sold every painting McKey has created. Her paintings breathe love and life into homes throughout the world.
Heather's Bio:
Heather McKey is a traditional acrylic painter, blending her lifelong love of birds with unexpected and striking features.
These fanciful birds are embellished with a variety of shells and botanicals intermingling with feathers and patterns found in nature. Strange and familiar at the same time, the birds are playful and exotic as they strike a pose in their world of dreamy landscapes and seascapes, peering back at their viewers with large, expressive eyes.
Each of Heather's paintings begin on a raw wood panel, the individual grain pattern inspiring the design composition of the plants, water, sky, and land. Her admiration of Martin Johnson Heade and James Audubon continue to influence her vision through every painting, as well as her deep love of The Hudson River School painters.
Although no formal degree, Heather was professionally trained from an early age through longstanding art mentorships. Her childhood was spent under the instruction of artist Judy Nachazel and her adult study followed under the mentorship of Christopher Polentz. Both have had a profound impact on her imagination, technique, and artistic pursuits.
Every fantasy bird is patiently and thoughtfully planned and painted with sensitive detail. There is something to look at in every square inch of Heather's paintings. After years exhibiting her award-winning colored pencil art, she now works exclusively in acrylic and paints daily in her home studio in North County San Diego where she lives with her husband, Nick. It gives her much joy to create beauty for collectors to enjoy in homes across the world.
Her exhibition will run from March 11 through April 1, 2017. The opening reception with Heather, live music, ArtHatch open studios, Stone Beer, and BK Cellars wine will be on Saturday March 11, from 6-10pm.
