Malcolm MacKenzie
1932 - 2002
Born on Christmas Day, 1932, Malcolm James “Mac” MacKenzie shared his gifts with the world by learning to paint and teaching himself the art of bronze casting. “I have been interested in art ever since I can remember,” said MacKenzie, “and spent many hours drawing when I should have been studying.”
Born and raised on his family’s farm in Bearspaw in the foot hills near Cochrane, Alberta, MacKenzie attended a one-room school until grade 10, and then worked as a ranch hand at High River and Longview. After purchasing Brewster’s, an outfitting company, he worked for twenty-five years big game-guiding and outfitting in Banff National Park, before leaving in 1981 to devote himself to his art. He was never far from the work of old western life, however, and maintained a cow-calf operation on his ranch north of Cochrane where he operated his foundry and gallery.
As a western artist, MacKenzie created more than 100 sculptures, personally working every stage of production from making the mother molds to tooling each wax and finishing each patina. His best known and largest work is “Men of Vision,” a 3 meter bronze statue of a cowboy and his horse erected upon a Cochrane bluff.
MacKenzie completed more than two dozen commissions for his bronzes, including awards for Northridge Petroleum in Calgary, a Canadian beaver for Franklin Mint in Pennsylvania, and trophies for the Canadian National Finals Rodeo.
MacKenzie died in 2002 at age 70, leaving behind a legacy of works that dwell in private, public, and corporate collections around the world, including in Canada, the USA, Australia, England, Japan, and China.
Born and raised on his family’s farm in Bearspaw in the foot hills near Cochrane, Alberta, MacKenzie attended a one-room school until grade 10, and then worked as a ranch hand at High River and Longview. After purchasing Brewster’s, an outfitting company, he worked for twenty-five years big game-guiding and outfitting in Banff National Park, before leaving in 1981 to devote himself to his art. He was never far from the work of old western life, however, and maintained a cow-calf operation on his ranch north of Cochrane where he operated his foundry and gallery.
As a western artist, MacKenzie created more than 100 sculptures, personally working every stage of production from making the mother molds to tooling each wax and finishing each patina. His best known and largest work is “Men of Vision,” a 3 meter bronze statue of a cowboy and his horse erected upon a Cochrane bluff.
MacKenzie completed more than two dozen commissions for his bronzes, including awards for Northridge Petroleum in Calgary, a Canadian beaver for Franklin Mint in Pennsylvania, and trophies for the Canadian National Finals Rodeo.
MacKenzie died in 2002 at age 70, leaving behind a legacy of works that dwell in private, public, and corporate collections around the world, including in Canada, the USA, Australia, England, Japan, and China.