Ross Thomson McKay

Since the beginning of my artistic career, the concept of home has always been the central focus of my process, informing my work to end up as a reflection of Scottish Ruralist culture. Taking on a cultural commentary that critiques the harsh mindsets of small village living. Balancing the critiques with the natural landscapes of these areas, exploring how the viewer would navigate these exaggerations of real environments.

Genres of surrealism plagued my works from the early days of painting, an inspiration curated by movements centring around the uncanny and beautiful. Leading into my projects of world-building as a form of autobiography, a therapeutic way of repositioning my home into the spotlight through moments that attract attention. Wandering through the botanicas and mountainous landscapes of my creations, a new path must be taken into the symbolism of the showcasing worlds. A delicacy in each object of subject matter is given such high amounts of representation value; implementing myself as the source of information allows the world-building to contort into self-portraiture.

Using self-portraiture as an area of interest to explore my own perceptions and internalised bias against the culture I grew up within. I place myself as the subject, as the ultimate authority, or possibly otherwise interpreted as the target. Allowing for a process of dissection that leads to the greater dissection of the village of Tillicoultry. I am interested in how I unconsciously and consciously interact with this landscape, which causes the fictionalisation and romanticising of the village’s architecture, people, botany, history, and politics.  Arriving at the motifs of style in paint and genre, creating a homogenised world new from ours that explores the grains of world-building and narrative in a place outwith scrutiny.

Similarly, the research that underpins my practice is focused on separating myself from proclaimed intellectualism and repositioning myself in primary sources. This materialises through conversations with the subjects of my art, with it being conversations through the medium of interviews or an expedition back to the places of focus.