Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Ray Mackie, born in 1949 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is a multi-talented visual artist. He works in several media, from pen and ink drawing to acrylic painting to sculpture in clay and wood. He is also a well-known community college art teacher.
Mackie became interested in art in the 1960s while he was a student at the University of Saskatchewan. He accompanied a friend to a pottery class and, after trying his hand, became intrigued with clay. After graduating with his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, Mackie enrolled at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax in 1975. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from that institution in 1977, then went on to Indiana State University to receive his Masters of Fine Arts in 1980. Later, in 1990, he received a Bachelor of Education degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
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Summer Passage 1985 Mixed Media on Canvas 96.5 x 84 cm 
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Mackie began teaching long before he finished his own education. From 1972 to 1976, he gave art classes for children, teens and adults through Memorial University Extension Service. While in Halifax, he taught at NSCAD, Dalhousie University and Mount Saint Vincent University. In 1979, Mackie was a teaching assistant while attending Indiana State University.
After returning to Newfoundland in 1980, Mackie helped establish the two-year Diploma of Applied Arts in Visual Arts program at Westviking College of Applied Arts in Stephenville. He has remained at the college as department head and co-ordinating instructor of the Visual Arts Department. Because of this stable position, Mackie is able to concentrate on creating the art he wants, without taking into account the commercial viability of his work. Mackie is known primarily as a sculptor and for his installation works. He is also an accomplished painter.
Mackie's work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Land and Sea: Eight Artists from Newfoundland, which toured Ireland in 1995-96, and Clay: A Media-based Practice at Dalhousie University Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1996. Among his solo exhibitions are those at Memorial University Art Gallery (1983), Westviking College (1991), RCAVisual Gallery (1995) and Eastern Edge's Rogue Gallery (1995). He has received many awards over the years, including the 1976 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Award for Excellence in Crafts, several grants from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and a Cabot 500—Year of the Arts '97 grant. His art is represented in public and private collections.
Mackie continues to live and work in Stephenville, Newfoundland.
