Kiran McKinnon is an abstract painter who lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau. She studied in London, UK and Auckland, NZ, gaining an MFA (1st class hons) from the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. 

Her work engages with experience and memory, particularly of the sensations of the natural world. Her work ranges from large-scale immersive paintings and installations to smaller more intimately scaled works on watercolour paper. Her unique processes of painting in acrylic on raw canvas involves spray, wash, wet on wet brushwork, and large quantities of water. The painting process weathers the canvas, mimicking in many ways the ephemeral processes the paintings invoke. Recent works have extended her use of water to include painting with sea water and rain water collected around Aotearoa.

"Water and weather are often at the centre of the places and experiences in the world that capture my attention, and thus find their way into my work. Rivers, lakes, the sea, rain, clouds, mist, all find reference in my work, and their echo in the methods I use to paint; misting, spraying and washing of water and paint across the canvas."