His innate creative ability is further evidenced by his distinctive Yorkshire-inspired collections. Born in Middlesbrough with strong Yorkshire connections, for the past thirty years Mackenzie has perfectly captured both the beauty and the danger of the moors and dales. He lays down the brooding giant skies, stunning landscapes, fast running rivers, waterfalls, castles, the shepherds and sheep of the glorious white rose county, expressed with feeling and passion an artist can only express, when they are truly inspired.
Mackenzie has been selling his work for thirty years and although his success now takes him around the world, Middlesbrough and Yorkshire remain in his heart as ‘home’, depicted so often in his stunning original pastel and watercolour pictures and prints.
Love is an important, unifying aspect of Mackenzie’s art. This search for love, our need for it and the power of it, is apparent in lots of his work, not just the more symbolically obvious images. It is imbued in the images of the Square Sheep (his family) and in the Duffle Coat Child who is often pulling a big heart but also in the nostalgic industrial images of northern England that Mackenzie remembers so vividly from his childhood.
“I think I now realise that what I draw are universal emotions, we all laugh, we all cry, we all hope and we all fear, and above all, we all strive for love.” Mackenzie Thorpe
