May 27th, 2023Artists of the Central Highlands

with Eve Lamb

Acclaimed arts couple Julie McKenzie and Malcolm King (above) have further enriched the Hepburn Shire’s rich arts scene after moving here from interstate last year. Julie is particularly renowned for her landscapes and Malcolm for his travel poster works. They are both widely collected and exhibited, and their studio has screen-printed works for some of the biggest names in Australian contemporary art.

Eve: When did you move to Newbury, from where, and what motivated the move?
Julie & Malcolm: We moved in January ’22, basically to spend more time with our daughters in Melbourne and Ballarat.
Eve: What genre of art do each of you practice?
Julie: We both paint and Malcolm is also printmaker. I make landscape-inspired work and Malcolm is more eclectic, figurative and abstract – and mixed media.
Eve: Are you both full time professional artists?
Malcolm: We have been working as professional artists as long as we have been together – 40 years or so. Julie worked part-time in the music industry and community based services until 2002. Since then, until
last year, we had been operating our own artist run gallery, Kingstudio, in Milton and then Maclean in New South Wales.
I have an extensive career facilitating community-based art and artists in schools programmes over several decades, and also teaching printmaking and graphic design for TAFE NSW.

Eve: As a couple, how do the two of you get along artistically speaking?
Julie: There is no rivalry, mostly collaboration. Our work is so different, although we now have separate studios. Malcolm is my best critic. Over the years we’ve worked on a lot of community-based arts projects together, or separately, in Sydney, regional NSW, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. These projects have included murals, mosaics, graffiti, textiles, theatre sets and music production. The latest
collaboration was last year with a commission, painting a large honour board/mural at the Victorian Trades Hall – which got a bit feisty.
Eve: You each have your own studio at Newbury. Are they open to the public?
Malcolm: Yes. We’re at 538 Blackwood Road, Newbury and will open the studio on random weekends, the next being the King’s Birthday weekend in June, or by appointment. People can contact us on 0415 836 194 or 0432 719 402.
Eve: What motivates and inspires each of you in your personal creative practice?
Julie: Waking up each day. Landscape. I love the diversity of the Australian landscape, from the tropical to the pastoral and everything in between. I like to think my work is like a record of landscapes that are rapidly being destroyed by over development and now the impacts of climate change.
Malcolm: The relentless busy-ness of the world and a low boredom threshold, provides a rich canvas both to draw from and on.
Eve: Can you tell me what have your (respective) arts world highlights been?
Julie. Meeting the people that buy my work, people from all over the world from different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. I’ve won a few prizes in exhibitions promoted by groups in all the places I’ve lived. Winning the Bentley Acquisitive was an unexpected highlight. Having the inaugural opening of the Milton ARTFest in NSW at our gallery was another.
Malcolm: Over the years I’ve been exhibited twice in the Wynne Prize and have received Australia Council funding for numerous projects, and had works in national, state and regional collections. Our print studio has screen-printed for other artists including David Boyd, Charles Blackman, Wendy Sharpe, Adam Cullen, Ken Done and others…
Eve: Which artists, living or past, do you each most admire?
Julie: So many. Kandinsky. The Blaue Reiter group. My knees went to jelly when I saw my first Kandinsky at the Tate in London in 1980. Margaret Preston, Margaret Olley. Too many to name here.
Malcolm: The German expressionists, Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse, (particularly the cut-outs), many contemporary indigenous artists, Rover Thomas, Judy Watson. Ian Fairweather, William Kentridge, Reg Mombassa. The list could go on and on, so I’ll stop there.
Eve: Do you have any special arts events or projects coming up?
Julie: We’re both working on new works in paint and print, interpreting our new surroundings here in the hills. The Macedon Ranges, Central Victoria and the Goldfields provide a rich social, political and natural history to inspire and comprehend.
Malcolm: The open studios for the Kings Birthday from June 10 to 13, and throughout the rest of 2023.