A Victoria artist sits at a desk inside the Empress Hotel, surrounded by pastel paintings depicting everyday life in the city—the B.C. Legislature, the view of the waterfront and a calm spring evening under a cherry tree in blossom.
Ken R.A MacKenzie, contemporary realist pastel painter and current artist-in-residence at the Empress, has spent a lifetime observing how people move through spaces long before he put focus into painting.
His land, sea, and cityscapes reflect decades of travel, design experience, and an appreciation for the environments many walk by without a second glance in Victoria neighbourhoods.
In an interview with Victoria News, he spoke of what influenced him to get into the artistry. He explained that as a child, he grew up seeing his father paint with pastel since he was five years old.
“I found it fascinating to be able to watch him do that,” MacKenzie said.
Though art was always present, MacKenzie came to painting professionally later in life, beginning at age 57 after a long career in design and retail consulting. Born in Toronto, MacKenzie attended a commercial arts program where he consistently achieved top marks. He later worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company for 13 years, travelling across Canada to advise on merchandise presentation and to design décor packages supporting seasonal and promotional events.
After leaving the Bay, he ran his own design business for more than a decade, consulting for retailers and designing large-scale shopping centre decorations.
“And then eventually, after moving out to Victoria, I began to paint more urban settings and moved on, which is what I continue to do today.”
Travel plays a defining role in his work. MacKenzie has visited 35 countries and 23 of them by motorcycle. Many of his early paintings were inspired by scenes from those journeys before Victoria itself had a profound influence on his art. Having spent much of his life in Toronto, he wasn’t exposed to the waterfront experience, until he made his way to Victoria.
“What appealed to me was just the water itself, the adjacency to the water, the boats that are at harbour, the different types of boats, different colours, different shapes.”
He is also drawn to the city’s architectural history, noting the abundance of older buildings that give Victoria a character unlike many other Canadian cities.
He notices the colours in Victoria and said that pastels are the best medium for painting such scenery.
“After more than 20 years of painting in pastels, I quite enjoy the vibrancy of the colour and the way the pastels work and feel on the substrate,” he said.
He values the medium’s portability and historical significance, citing artists such as Edgar Degas among his influences.
As an artist, MacKenzie is keen on viewer’s connection to his work and has created his artistic philosophy around it. He describes how he gains satisfaction from the emotional connection the viewer has around his work.
“The degree to which the viewer responds emotionally is the measure of my success.”
MacKenzie’s work hangs in private collections in Canada, Israel, and Germany and he is a past juried member of Pastel Artists of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and the West Coast Collective, and is currently a juried member of the Victoria Sketch Club. He has also taken on numerous custom commissions, ranging from vehicles to land and cityscapes.
Being an artist who is roaming around Victoria with his work and exploring the city, MacKenzie said he receives a lot of positive feedback from the community.
“I think they resonate to quite an extent with people seeing the areas they walk through every day. I always attempt to capture a different flavour of these different areas that we often take for granted. People have told me that some of the things that they quite enjoy are the variety of colours that I’ve chosen.”
Art lovers also have told him that his work is realistic to the extent that they feel like they could actually walk right into them. For MacKenzie, this is a huge compliment.
“Other people respond to the amount of detail which is in them,” he added.
“I find people have told me that when they look at it and then they look away and they come back, there’s always something new that attracts their attention.”
Going forward, he is planning to expand his collection in terms of the things he paints and explore more of Vancouver Island.
“I’m constantly looking at every painting. I would like to be somewhat different from the one before, whether it’s expanding on certain aspects of the composition itself, or the colouration that I use.”
He is focusing on creating a unique palette of colours that help to reinforce the theme of the painting, small details, and playing with perspectives.
“All of which I think helps to draw the viewer in and develop a rapport and a relationship with what they’re viewing,” he said. He added that he is always open to commissions and new opportunities.
“I’m looking forward to projects that help bring my art to a wider field of viewers.”
Ken R. A. MacKenzie’s work can be viewed on Instagram at @ken_r_a_mackenzie, and more information is available at www.kramackenzie.com. For inquiries, he can be reached at Sparkmack@gmail.com.