Debbie Mackenzie is an artist residing on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. After studying Graphic Design and then following a career in advertising, Debbie embarked upon a journey into the romantic. She quickly established herself as one of the most exciting emerging artists to watch and has gone on to be involved in countless sell-out solo shows and group exhibitions.
Debbie's work is largely about reverie, a sense of place and a desire to be there. Inspiration comes from her childhood, spent on the Mornington Peninsula and holidaying at the family's century-old beach house at Peterborough on the Great Ocean Road. These land and seascapes provide a rich and endless source of motivation leading to paintings depicting scenes that feel just out of reach, as though one could almost climb through the frame and become a part of them.
Portraying the ease and quietude of gently undulating landscapes and the elemental purity of weather's energy in dialogue with the sea, Debbie's paintings emulate the feeling of standing before a vista that coaxes an unknotting of the body and mind. Acrylics are rendered on canvas to convey the natural world in all its awesome vastness. Often devoid of humanity, the scenes hero the natural world occasionally hinting at man's presence through the evidence of cultivated fields or a single distant house.
A John Leslie Art Prize Finalist in 2020 and 2018, Debbie has exhibited in numerous successful solo shows and group exhibitions and has work in private collections across the country and abroad.
Artist in Residence: We are delighted to have Debbie joining us in the stockroom as Artist in Residence as she prepares for her upcoming solo exhibition at the gallery in March 2025. Her presence will undoubtedly bring a wonderful energy to our space. Drop by the stockroom to say hi, and with her pieces disappearing as quickly as she creates them, be sure to secure your place on the waitlist for her upcoming show...