He himself painted portrait and genre figure subjects including fishermen, old villagers and smithy scenes, but also did landscapes and coastal views, notably in the Isle of Man of which he had several paintings and drawings shown, with complimentary reviews, at the Walker Art Gallery and Liver Sketching Club in 1881. He may also have worked in south-west Scotland, and as his health later deteriorated visited Davos in Switzerland in hope of recovery (which suggests he may have had tuberculosis). He exhibited regularly at Liverpool exhibitions and, from Falkner Street – where no. 28 appears to have been his parents’ home, since his father died there in 1904 – also had one work accepted at the Royal Academy in each of the years 1888, 1889 and 1890. He is also reported to have won several bronze and silver medals for his work at various shows.

In 1890 Mackenzie led a party of about a dozen young deaf-and-dumb Liverpudlians to Paris, which further suggests he was a leading figure in that area of local disability, as well as a noted young Liverpool painter admired both for his talent and mastery of his own disability. He died at West Kirby, Wirral, on Tuesday 8th October 1893, aged 28, his funeral taking place there on Friday 11th.

The Dictionary of British Artists, 1880–1940 lists him as exhibiting 1882–1892 at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (2), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (33), Manchester City Art Gallery (3), the Royal Academy (3) and the Royal Scottish Academy (3).

Summarised from Art UK’s Art Detective discussion ‘Is this by James Wilson Mackenzie?’