Kirstin Mackinnon

Scotland-based artist Kirstin Mackinnon graduated in 2023 with a First-Class
Honours degree in Fine Art.

Since then, she has gained recognition for her painting and writing through
acquisitions, awards and publications. Her figurative oil paintings have featured in prominent exhibitions including the Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries 2024, and Visual Art Scotland’s centenary exhibitions. Kirstin’s paintings saw her achieve Semi-Finalist status in Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year, 2024. In Spring 2025, she was selected as feature artist for the Glasgow Art Club and was longlisted for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition. Kirstin’s written work won her a publishing contract for best Fine Art thesis, and she has been commissioned to write for Art UK. Her work has also featured in magazines such as ArtMag and Homes and Interiors Scotland.

Kirstin’s work notably focuses on gender equality in contemporary painting. She
often uses humour to challenge the continuing gender imbalance in the art world. Her paintings encourage the viewer to question how different genders are viewed, represented and portrayed in art, and why society values their works differently. 

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh recently commissioned Kirstin to create a painting that promotes gender equality in the surgical field. The artwork, Eleven Surgeons (2025), is part of Surgeons’ Hall Museums’ Women in Surgery initiative, which aims to boost the representation of women in its collection. Kirstin has since been commissioned to create an artwork celebrating women in law, for the Women in Law Project, Scotland.