There are only a few days left to get absorbed in the abstract landscapes of award-winning and internationally exhibited artist Jane McKay.

McKay studied painting at the Seaford College of TAFE in Sydney and her paintings have been exhibited in various Australian cities as well as overseas in New York, Los Angeles and Singapore.

I was immediately drawn to her paintings because of the different moods that they inspire. All McKay’s paintings are within her own particular style, in which vibrant colours and texture engage the viewer.

I was impressed at how, utilising similar colours, the different pictures inspire different moods. McKay mainly paints with reds, browns, creams, greys and black with splashes of other colours. For example, Signature, a striking picture in which these colours predominate, leads the imagination to peaceful contemplation yet Red Valley, in which the artist utilises similar colours, the paint stirs passion, ardour and heat.

McKay’s paintings are very well-balanced: she uses light in such a way that the pictures acquire an obvious three dimensionality.

McKay has recently said:”I love the juxtaposition of the real and the abstract and experiment with colour. I also decorate my paintings with tiny indispensable details of the natural world which appears against the distant horizon. My paintings strive for meaning beyond the boundaries of logic and explore the sublime.”

This is a perfect description of McKay’s paintings—the natural world suggests itself in deserts, mountains and valleys that are not there but metaphysically exist in the communion between the observer and the paint.

Furthermore, McKay’s canvasses invite the observer to introspect guiding them with its colours, its horizons and what is said without words.

For those art lovers who seek abstract paintings this is an exhibition that cannot be missed.

Timeless Solitude is on at the Soho Art Galleries until Thursday 7th December, 2006.