Debbie Mackenzie
Debbie Mackenzie paints with the deep atunement of someone who sees landscape not just as scenery, but as memory, rhythm and inheritance. Her work is grounded in the quiet repetition of place: those familiar routes and vistas that imprint themselves in childhood and re-emerge with astonishing clarity later in life. Whether it’s the rolling hills of Victoria’s hinterland or the cinematic sweep of the Great Ocean Road, Mackenzie captures the emotional resonance of terrain as much as its visual character.
Working primarily in acrylic, her paintings are marked by precision and patience. Branch by branch, wave by wave, she constructs scenes that feel at once observed and remembered. There is a meditative quality to her brushwork, where distance collapses into closeness and the viewer is invited to enter not just a location, but a lived experience of place.
Debbie Mackenzie is a two-time finalist in the John Leslie Art Prize (2020 and 2018) and has been recognised by Amber Creswell Bell’s ACB Selects platform as a standout among emerging Australian artists.
“My practice revolves around my desire to capture the incredible beauty of the Australian landscape, both where I live and further afield. Returning to where I either have been or where my imagination takes me afterward. Away from the frenetics of modern living to the ease and gentleness of the landscape and all its contemplation. I am uncontrollably immersed in these landscapes. Chronicling my absolute captivation with the peace it brings me.”
-Debbie Mackenzie
