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John Drew MacKENZIE
Painter, designer and illustrator Born on 10 April 1861 in Shanghai, China (GRO), the son of James Mackenzie, a Scottish merchant, and Euphemia, a Canadian mother.
MacKenzie arrived in Newlyn in 1888 as a painter and illustrator, and thereafter the whole direction and purpose of his life changed. A committed Christian (Quaker), who practiced his faith in daily life, he was soon deeply involved in the community life of the Newlyn fisherfolk.
In 1890, with the help of a handful of local artists and others, he founded the Newlyn Industrial Class (later called The Newlyn Art Metal Industry), with the aim of providing a useful occupation for young fishermen in their spare time and during times of unemployment. He was a brilliant designer, and soon the young craftsmen were executing his ideas mainly in repousse copper, but also in brass and pewter, sometimes with enamel embellishments.
In 1892, the fine repousse designer and craftsman John PEARSON joined him from the Guild of Handicraft in Whitechapel as a teacher of teachers, and soon the best Newlyn metalwork was appearing in London exhibitions - and ultimately at Liberty's. Thus, he voluntarily abandoned his ambitions as a painter, although he still made line drawings from time to time.
Mackenzie played a leading part in many aspects of local life, both religious and secular. He ran Bible classes, read the Lessons, designed with Frank BRAMLEY the Band of Hope banner, helped run the Seaman's Rest Centre, and umpired cricket matches. With Reginald Thomas DICK he set up the Newlyn Press that printed, among other things, the short-lived Paper Chase, a journal published by Elizabeth FORBES, and edited by Fryn JESSE.
A life-long bachelor, he lived variously at Belmont on Paul Hill, The School House at Gwavas Quay, and in lodgings at 2 Antoine Terrace, Newlyn. The start of WWI brought a suspension of workshop activities, though Mackenzie continued to involve himself in Newlyn life, and for several years he served on the Committee of the Newlyn Art Gallery. In July 1918, at the age of 57 and in poor health, he was in Norfolk camping with a group of young Newlyn fishermen who had joined the Cornwall Volunteer Training Corps attached to the Sixth Suffolks when influenza broke out. In Mackenzie's case, this was followed by pneumonia, and hee died in the Norfolk War Hospital on 22 July 1918 (GRO).
According to one tribute, "he devoted himself to the care of two sick Newlyn lads, and this hastened his own death."
He was a much admired figure in Cornish life. [Summary contributed by TFG Jones, to Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall]
Warren MACKENZIE
An American, born in Kansas City, Missouri, MacKenzie and his wife Alix lodged at the Leach Pottery cottage, and for a period of two years learned from Bernard LEACH the techniques of throwing that had been lacking in their previous training (at the Art Institute of Chicago). From this apprenticeship experience they developed their own functional designs and standard ware. Returning to the USA, they built a two-chambered climbing kiln in their workshop at Stillwater, Minnesota while the ceramist took up a lectureship at the University of Minnesota in 1953. Alix worked alongside her husband in every respect until her death in 1962.
Warren progressed to Full Professor of Ceramics at Minnesota, and is now Emeritus Professor. Warren still uses an adaptation of the wheel originally built for the St Ives pottery by Dicon NANCE. He is quoted as saying that 'without Bernard's pioneering leadership, pottery made by the individual craftsman would not have realised the acclaim it enjoys today', and he continues to remember Leach, Shoji HAMADA and YANAGA as providing him with his springboard to the future.
Considered today as one of the most distinguished potters of his generation, honours and retrospective exhibitions abound. His teaching is also available by video on the Internet.
George MACKGILL
An artist from New Zealand who enrolled c1904-06 at the FORBES SCHOOL in Newlyn.
Sara MACLEAN
The artist produced one of the few known paintings featuring the Porthmeor Road Studios which, as Tovey explains, 'captures the view of the beach side of these studios, as seen from The Island.' On St Ives Show Day 1916 both Pauline HEWITT and Sara MacLEAN used the Rose Lodge Studio, Wharf Road for the exhibition of their work, and she was noted in the local newspaper.
Isabel MACPHERSON
A painter of watercolour landscapes.
Margo MAECKELBERGHE
Margo was born in Penzance, and studied art at the Bath Academy of Art from 1949-52, and further at the Penzance School of Art. A major influence on her simplicity of approach to landscape and coastal painting was one of her Corsham tutors, William SCOTT, for whom she also worked as a studio assistant.
She taught in London and then Gibraltar for two years before returning to live in Cornwall, to settle and live with her Belgian-born husband Willy Maeckelberghe, a general practitioner much-loved in the area.
The painter is a long-time member of the Newlyn Society of Artists, having served in all respects on the the Council of Management and the Committees of the NSA. She has exhibited widely and internationally. Her work is in many public collections, including Exeter University and Cornwall Council.
Currently she is Chairman of the Penwith Society of Artists. Her paintings feature the sweeping, evocative landscapes of her native Cornwall, and views from the Isles of Scilly, of coastal rockscapes, seas and skies.
Margo MAECKLEBURGHE
See Margo MAECKELBERGHE
Alice MAHONEY
Mahoney is a multimedia artist working in drawing, silk screen, sound, video and installation. Before moving to Cornwall she lived and worked in London and Berlin.
