A lifetime of painting passion
From drawing in grandfather’s dairy book to London fame
FROM a modest beginning drawing pictures as a young boy to having a painting accepted in the David Shepherd International Wildlife Artist of the Year exhibition in London, is the success story of well-known Eastern Cape artist Bob McKenzie, who now lives in Port Alfred.
But this took more than 50 years of hard work and dedication to achieve.
Born in Komani (formerly Queenstown), McKenzie spent his entire school career at the famous Queen’s College. This was something of a family affair as his father, Lionel, taught at the school as a senior science and mathematics teacher for 23 years. At the same time, he owned and ran a small dairy farm close to the town.
Though it was obvious at an early age that McKenzie junior had a natural artistic talent, it was here that his love for farming developed.
“I had this in my blood and always wanted to farm,” he said.
And so it was that after matriculating in 1964, he enrolled at the Grootfontein Agricultural College near Middelburg for a two-year diploma course. Besides achieving this, he also got his Springbok Head for classing wool. This meant that he was now qualified to class farmers’ wool clips anywhere in the country.
As a young man, McKenzie travelled the country with shearing gangs and met many interesting people. The first clip he classed was for a farmer in the Nottingham Road district in KwaZulu-Natal and little did he know that he would marry this man’s daughter, Fay, a few years later.
McKenzie classed wool for four years before managing a 500-cow dairy farm in KwaZulu-Natal. But he had a yearning to return to the Eastern Cape and this he did when he bought his own farm in the Tylden district near Komani. This farm had good water which enabled him to grow his own pastures for the dairy he developed with stud Friesland cows.
After 18 years, he sold this farm and bought a smaller property near his home town where he joined the Taurus Cattle Genetics Company that specialised in artificial insemination.
But after a year, McKenzie took the brave step of starting his own artificial insemination (AI) station on his new property which was ideal for this purpose.
“I was lucky as it was just one of those happy things that flourished,” he said.
Throughout all these years, McKenzie never lost his love for painting and continued with this as a serious hobby. And so it was in 2012 that he sold his farm and moved to Port Alfred to concentrate on being a full-time artist.
He loved drawing pictures as a child and remembers getting into trouble at an early age when he used his grandfather’s dairy book for this purpose. His parents were friendly with the late Les Elliott, who was a well-known and talented artist in Komani.
One of Elliott’s sons, Dale, had inherited his father’s talent and the two youngsters became great friends through their love for art. McKenzie, who has concentrated on oils, produced his first painting at the tender age of 13.
Despite a busy business life, McKenzie continued painting whenever he had the opportunity and holds something of a record in that he has submitted paintings for the annual Queenstown Art Exhibition for 40 consecutive years.
He recently celebrated “50 Years in Oils” when he turned their Komani home into a gallery for a three-week exhibition. He has also been involved in about 60 exhibitions throughout the country as well as one-man exhibitions.
Perhaps McKenzie’s most satisfying point in his career was when he was invited to submit paintings for consideration in the wildlife exhibition in London in June last year. He submitted three, one of which was selected for final exhibition. This took place in the famous Mall Galleries, which is situated in the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.