Meet the Artist // Courtenay K. McCue

Can you tell me a bit about yourself and what are you working on doing your residency here?

I’m from the Gold Coast in Australia, so Berlin has been a completely different world for me. I came extremely open and not really knowing what to expect, and the shift from a beach lifestyle, waking up at 5AM, surfing, exercising, to this intense, urban environment really rewired me. But in the best way. I’ve found that I can actually be more myself here in which I didn’t realise I needed for myself.

That shift has filtered into my art also. I didn’t realise how deeply the culture back home shaped me until I stepped out of it. In Berlin, I feel like I can make without second-guessing anything. My work has become darker, grungier, and more raw, not as “pretty,” but much more honest. It actually feels like a return to the style I had about eight years ago, so in a way, this residency has helped me rediscover a part of myself I’d forgotten and ready to push forward again.

You’ve talked about the intuitiveness behind your paintings. What do you start with, the figure, the colours, or a mix of both? How do you know when a painting is finished?

It’s different every time, but for this painting I started with a horizontal composition and an urge to paint ducks, just to feel some kind of nature around me. Ducks and birds give me nostalgic connection and comfort. At first in this painting were three ducks by a pond and the scene felt calm, but as my mindset shifted over the weeks, I kept painting over it, responding to whatever state I was in at that moment. I usually begin somewhere knowing it’ll eventually change, because I change my mind constantly with art ideas. That fluidity, layering, erasing, reshaping, is what forms my painting style.

As for knowing when a painting is finished, I’ve learned to hand over control to my intuition and let the work guide me. Some pieces take a year to really click, working on them on and off, because the process, the feeling, and the connection have to align. Creating this body of work in just three months felt very different, almost rushed, but I’m still genuinely happy with the outcome. It captures my time in Berlin in an honest, meaningful way.

You’re painting female figures that play with the male gaze and fit into a conventional idea surrounding western beauty and body types. How does your symbolism contradict these traditional narratives?

The symbolism in my artworks play with the tension between innocence and erotica, exploring how the two can coexist and be balanced within myself. The ducks tap into a sense of purity, playfulness, and familiarity, while the more charged elements, like the women, archery and darts; bring in an almost dangerous energy. Those motifs feel to me like a circus scene, places where chance, desire, and spectacle collide. Berlin itself feels like a fun circus, at least the version of it I’ve experienced, so the colours and visual language grew from that chaos: bright, raw, overstimulating. Together, these elements create a world where innocence and erotic charge and push against each other, revealing the messy, honest in-between I’ve discovered.

I never thought about the male gaze when creating these works, it’s entirely my own gaze, my own sexual desires, and my curiosity about who I am and who I want to be. It comes from what I find attractive, desirable, and visually compelling. I’ve always loved fashion magazines and illustration. Growing up in the 2000’s, magazines were the window into pop culture, long before social media shaped the way we see ourselves and society, so those influences naturally filter into my work. Muses such as Brigitte Bardot, Bettie Page, and Dita Von Teese have always been an inspiration within my works also. With these paintings, I made them a bit more rough and raw, so it isn’t the perfect kind of finished brush strokes, and I’m going to leave them like that. It’s my own portrait of my inner subconscious trying to work out desires and the world.

I’m planning to make the bed with black silk sheets and place it in the center of the room so people can lay on it and view the works from different angles. The car painting is meant to be seen from one direction, and the duck piece from another, so the bed becomes a way to shift perspective. I’m also hand-embroidering the phrase “Uncomfortably Comfortable” onto the pillows, “Comfortable” on one, “Uncomfortably” on the other. It reflects how I move through the world. I’m strangely at ease in discomfort, and the moment things become too comfortable, I get restless. I need a bit of chaos to feel alive again. It frustrates me sometimes, but it’s just who I am in this era of my life.

Interview Shay Rutkowski (@sruutrut)

Photos Yasemin Erguvan (@yaseminerguvan)