The Hills of Belfast

McConaghy was awarded 2nd place at the Northern Ireland Young Artist of the Year awards in 2015. Since then she has completed her undergraduate degree in Belfast, and is currently studying an MFA degree at the University of Edinburgh. While her work in the past has taken a unique approach to specifically the Irish landscape, she has begun to explore a new range and element to her work whilst studying in Edinburgh.

McConaghy explores the landscape through her own subjective view. Primarily, she works with oil paint on canvas, however a lengthly process of collage and drawing are first vigorously tested in order to create an image that she is content with. It is the beginning stage of every painting she creates and whilst the narrative is always related to the landscape, it is this subconscious process of collage that allows for her own made up reality of the landscape to unfold. Her work is emotionally influenced by her own subjective narrative and she creates her paintings to allow the viewer to question what is real, surreal or even possible. The work is aimed to encourage the audience to step into her own reality that she has created through this subconscious process, and to question traditional narratives surrounding the landscape. This concept of the subjective space and the objective place is explored throughout her work. The subjective space meaning an emotionally inspired concept, compared with the objective place as a physical representation. She often aims to join the two concepts through voided or claustrophobic situations.