Alexander Mackenzie, painter; Times of London
Hyfler/Rosner
Disciplined, refined and economical St Ives artist, known for
semi-abstract landscapes inspired by his surroundings
(Times of London)
Although he had lived in Cornwall for 52 years, Alexander
Mackenzie never lost his northern brogue or the northern liking for speaking
his mind. His comments on much that is happening in today's art world, from
installation art to the so-called stars in the art firmament, were candid,
to say the least.
Born in Liverpool, Mackenzie spent most of his boyhood in
Yorkshire, where he was educated. He was introduced to art at the beginning
of the Second World War, when his school was evacuated to Newburgh Priory -
"a marvellous place filled with tapestries and paintings". It was an
experience he enjoyed and one that was to influence him despite its brevity.
As soon as he was old enough he volunteered for the Army and for
five years he was with the armoured Inns of Court Regiment, seeing active
service in the European theatre of war. A period he often described as "just
another experience", it was one that was not wasted, for the drawings he
made as a soldier were instrumental in gaining him acceptance to Liverpool
College of Art.
On completion of his course there, in 1950, he went to Newlyn in
Cornwall, where he occupied a studio in which Frank Wright Bourdillon of the
Newlyn school of artists once worked. For several years he taught art at a
school in Penzance while painting as much as he could in his spare time.
In 1964 he was invited to become senior lecturer in art at
Plymouth College of Art, where he stayed for 20 years, becoming the head of
the department of fine art, before taking early retirement in order to
devote all his time to his own work.
A longstanding member of both the Newlyn and Penwith Societies
of Artists, he held his first one-man show at the Waddington Galleries in
London in 1959. In 1960 he was part of the 21st Watercolour Biennial in New
York, in 1962 he was in the Premio Marzotto international exhibition in Rome
and afterwards he exhibited widely in Britain and abroad. His last
significant show was at Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London, in 1999.
Although he came to know artists such as Ben Nicholson, Peter
Lanyon and John Wells after he came to Cornwall, and was represented in the
1985 St Ives exhibition at the Tate, he remained unaffected by them and
stuck firmly to his own semi-abstract landscape-based style of painting.
An artist who loved fields - he once drove 350 miles just to
look at one - he had the ability to capture the feelings and sensations
engendered by a particular field, or any part of the landscape for that
matter, almost in a single line. Indeed, he could do more with a single line
than most could with a whole complex drawing.
A disciplined, refined and economical artist, he never wasted a
line or stroke in exploring the space and structure of his subject. He had
an understanding of geography and geology and with a few carefully selected
lines could suggest the many facets of a landscape - the hills, valleys,
field patterns, rock formation, and the weather - that help to shape our
scenery.
He often returned to his native North of England in search of
subject matter and, apart from an occasional vista of Tuscany, the works in
his exhibitions were usually either of Cumbria or Cornwall. Any artist who
can conjure up the misty history of Hadrian's Wall or the mystery of
prehistoric Cornwall without drawing a single stone has to be special, and
Mackenzie was just that.
His wife predeceased him, and he is survived by their two
daughters.
Alexander Mackenzie, artist and teacher, was born in Liverpool
on April 9, 1923. He died in Penzance of a heart attack on September 18,
2002, aged 79.
