Tribute to Don McKinlay

Artist Janina Cebertowicz has recently created this moving film as a tribute to her late husband MAFA member Don McKinlay who sadly passed away in 2017.

‘I met Don when I was 18 and Art was the thread which ran through the 46 years of our life together. He was an established Liverpool artist and having recently returned from completing a commission in India he was a rather exotic figure back in Manchester’s College of Art.’

‘We shared a studio at his National Trust farm in Rossendale once I had completed my Fine Art Degree at Bath Academy of Art. The farm became a place where his friends – poets, painters, writers and musicians  gravitated to, including Beryl Bainbridge, Adrian Henri, Sam Walsh, Maurice Cockrill, and Les Palmer (credited with developing a successful template for the Notting Hill Carnival, of which he was director from 1973 to 1975) amongst many others.’

‘His determination to explore his ideas through a wide range of media is rare and his versatility impressed me. He encouraged me to not only become a teacher but also to continue my studio practice and exhibit. No conversation, criticism or advice about how I should work was ever given. I was fortunate that I could learn through observation. We also had long conversations about drawing and painting techniques, art history and education. Influences from art of previous periods are embedded in his works which were produced purely for the sensation of manipulating materials including paint, as well as for their own sake. He exhibited with Manchester Academy of Arts regularly from 1990 winning several awards.’

Janina Cebertowicz