Shirley McKay: Mormon Artist
Shirley Taylor McKay British is a tonal landscape painter with a diverse interest in media. She paints landscapes plein air as well as composites, realistic and abstract. She is especially fond of Chinese painting.
She was born in New York and grew up in Chicago. Her parents encouraged her artistic abilities—her mother took her regularly to the Art Institute of Chicago and her father, a studio photographer, let her assist him in both his studio and darkroom. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin. She taught in both the high school and university level.
Shirley married and moved to Salt Lake City and at age 32 was left to care for her five children when her husband died. When they were raised she went on to earn a degree in graphic design and illustration and has painted professionally ever since. She says that her art is “focused on uplifting the spirit and healing.”[1]
