Bruce McKay fell in love with art as a young child; growing up in Toronto, McKay could always be found sketching animals. His parents, in order to nurture this budding talent, arranged for a young McKay to spend time with a local artist, Ralph Abrams. McKay spent countless hours with Abrams, either sketching at the museum or in his studio. McKay was then accepted to an arts high school, where he primarily studied life drawing, but was eager to try as many different media as he could get his hands on. Though McKay experimented with abstract oil paintings, watercolors of wildlife, and technical illustration, he still hadn’t found a style all his own.

After graduating from school, McKay went into the advertising field, and eventually rose to the position of creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi, Canada. Unfortunately, the grueling hours of an ad exec didn’t allow McKay much time to express himself creatively, so McKay decided to resign and become a painter full time. McKay finally found his unique style after he adopted his cat, Maxine. The focus of his paintings shifted exclusively to cats, and he paints them in a style that is an amalgam of all his artistic influences. McKay then built his virtual gallery Bigcatheads.com, which is visited by people around the world.