Lachlan McKenzie

Based in Woodend at the heart of Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, I am a landscape painter working primarily in oils, perhaps a little too in addicted to painting en plein air. My practice is rooted in this wonderful mix of exploration, but also returning to the same places which have left imprints on me throughout my life. I wouldn’t say I ever wish to capture them exactly, but rather seek understand them more fully.

I am interested in our desire as human-beings to belong to place, and the quiet ways we try to connect with it. I prefer the ritual of painting over the routine. A commitment to slowing down and looking carefully. The work often emerges from this tension between observation and memory.

Artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ivan Shishkin, and Isaac Levitan inspire me deeply. I find their work carries a deep sensitivity toward landscape and an attentiveness to mood and presence. In my own works, I am exploring how these ideas might translate into a contemporary Australian context. How familiar places can still feel unknown, and appreciating that ineffability.