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Merric
Boyd drawing on foggy evening, Murrumbeena
Arthur Boyd Oil on canvas 1090 x 2290 mm 1967-68
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William
Merric Boyd was born in 1888 in St Kilda, a bayside suburb of Melbourne,
in his paternal grandfather's house, Glenfern. He was the second born
of five children to painters Arthur Merric Boyd and Emma Minnie Boyd.
His older brother, Gilbert (1886), was a killed in a horse riding accident
at the age of nine years. He had two younger brothers, Penleigh (1890)
and Martin (1893) , and a sister, Helen (1903). Merric attended Haileybury
College, and in 1905, worked for a year as a jackaroo in the Riverina
area of New South Wales on a family property.
Merric
Boyd at Dookie Agriculture College, aged 19 in 1906
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In 1906 he studied at Dookie Agricultural College.
In 1907, his parents purchased a dairy farm at Yarra Glen, east of Melbourne,
with the idea that he might become a farmer. Merric did not pursue this
as a career, and in 1909, he enrolled at St. Johns Theological College to
become a Minister in the Church of England. Discontinuing this in the same
year, in 1910 he studied for one term at the National Gallery School. |
Gum
Tree, Merric Boyd Water Colour 140
x 220 mm 1909
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Pastoral
Landscape, Merric Boyd Water colour 240 x 180 mm 1909
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Merric
had become interested in sculpture through his family's friendship with
sculptor, Web Gilbert. His first association with a commercial pottery
was at Archibald McNair's Burnley Pottery in Melbourne, where he purchased
his clay. Whilst there, he had the opportunity to use a wheel, and the
help of workers, quickly learnt the basic skills of throwing. He refined
his skills while working at the Australian Porcelain Insulator works
in Yarraville between 1912 and 1914. His earliest pottery can be dated
to this period.
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Ceramic
Koala Jar, Merric Boyd 220 [h] mm*
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Sculptured
head of Doris Boyd, by Merric Boyd
c. 1914 - 1915 plaster 370 [ah] mm*
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In
1913 Merric's parents bought for him a property at Number 8 Wahroongaa
Crescent in Murrumbeena, and with their assistance,
built a small weatherboard residence studio. He named his new home Open
Country. Murrumbeena is twelve kilometres south-east of Melbourne and
in 1913 was beyond the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne. It was an area
of large estates, paddocks, orchards and poppy farms with scattered
areas of bush and scrub, centred around Murrumbeena Railway Station
and the commercial area that had established there.
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Merric
Boyd in his pottery at Open Country in 1914
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| Merric
began making pottery at a time when obtaining the necessary equipment
and materials was
exceedingly difficult to
do.
As a result, he largely made his own. He built pug mills, grinders, throwing
wheels and kilns, and made glazes from basic oxides. To obtain clay, he
utilized the clay deposits in the Murrumbeena and Oakleigh areas, and
prepared it himself.
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Open
Country at Murrumbeena c. 1916
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The
Pottery, Murrumbeena, Arthur
Merric Boyd c. 1920 |
| In
1915, Merric married artist, Doris Gough. They worked together and separately
in their artistic pursuits.
Doris wrote poetry and painted with watercolour
and oil
paints, and decorated a substantial amount of Merric's pottery. Merric
continued to develop his skills in ceramics. In particular he was very
successful in finding ways to combine sculptural forms with his thrown
pots.
|
Merric
Boyd with Lucy and Arthur at Open Country c.1922 |
Merric
Boyd with Lucy and Arthur at Open Country c.1922 |
Merric and Doris' first child, Lucy, was born in 1916. In
1917, Merric enlisted in the Australian Flying Corps to serve in World
War One and was sent to England. Around this time, his parents and Doris's
mother, Evelyn (Granny) Gough moved to Wahroongaa Crescent to support
Doris and baby Lucy. Arthur Merric Boyd and Emma Minnie Boyd built their
house, which they called Tralee, at Number 4 Wahroongaa Crescent, while
Evelyn Gough built her house, called Green Pastures, at Number 12 Wahroongaa
Crescent. As a result, and for about eight years, between 1916 and 1924,
the extended Boyd clan occupied the entire northern flank of the Crescent.
Evelyn
Gough moved to Open Country in 1927 and spent her final years there
with Merric and Doris. She died in 1931. Arthur Merric Boyd and Emma
Minnie Boyd left the Crescent in 1924, moving to the bayside suburb
of Sandringham.
After
the War, Merric remained in England and studied pottery at the Wedgwood
Pottery. In 1919 he returned to Open Country, where he applied many
of the techniques he had acquired in England. His pottery became highly
popular. He held exhibitions and pottery demonstrations at Open Country
and in Melbourne, and sold his pots through city stores such as Mair
and Lyne, and Georges. He was described in one newspaper article as
'the King of Melbourne Potters'.
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Doris Boyd
at Open Country c. 1920
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Merric
and Doris's second child, Arthur, was born at Open Country in 1920,
followed by Guy in 1923, David in 1924 and Mary in 1926.
In the 1920's, Merric and Doris joined the Christian Science Church.
Religion and the faith it offered, supported them through some of the
difficult times which were to follow. The greatest of these occurred
in 1926, when papers near Merric's gas-fired kiln caught fire, causing
the kiln to explode. It and the fire that followed completely destroyed
his pottery. A public appeal was held to raise funds to build a new
pottery. While this was operational by 1927, it was not as big as the
one he lost.
The
fire had a major impact one Merric's health and it is generally understood
that his first major epileptic seizure took place shortly after this
event. He and Doris continued to sell their pottery in the city. They
would catch a train into Melbourne and carry their heavy suitcases packed
with pots to the different stores. In 1927, and out of financial necessity,
Merric briefly taught pottery at a secondary school in Armadale, New
South Wales.
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Merric
Boyd in 1930
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Along
with the fire and the demands of a growing family, the Great Depression
made life very challenging for the Boyds, as it did for countless other
Australian
families. To gain additional income, in 1934, both Doris and Merric worked
for a few months throwing and decorating
pots at a porcelain factory in Yarraville.
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Doris
Boyd with her children in 1929.
From left; Guy, Arthur, Lucy, Mary and David
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Merric and Doris encouraged their children to express
themselves through art. They all learnt to work with clay from an
early age. David Boyd said that, as a child, he thought all families created
art together as his family had done, and later on in life was surprised
to discover that this was not the case.
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The
hands of Merric Boyd at his wheel at
Open Country Murrumbeena in the early 1920's |
Merric Boyd was fascinated and inspired by the natural
world. For him, pottery, was the perfect vehicle to express his affection
for Australian fauna
and flora
and its landscapes, and the beauty he saw in the world. This, together
with his deep spiritual beliefs and his certainty in the power of love,
led him to create truly unique Australian works of ceramic art. While
he was not the first potter to use native fauna
and flora in pottery, he raised its use to
new levels of artistry and acceptance.
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Pot
with koala Merric
Boyd 1932
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Jug
with tree-trunk handle Merric
Boyd 1926 |
Jug
with apples, Merric
Boyd 1931 |
Bowl
with handles, Merric
Boyd 1938 |
Many of Merric's works feature trees and branches,
gum leaves, gum nuts and native animals such as koalas and kookaburras
sculpted into thrown works, which include jugs, vases, bowls and pots.
He often used the form of tree trunks and branches for the handles of
his pottery. Bent and twisted windswept branches and leaves were wrapped
around pots. Pots were decorated with landscapes, post
and rail fences, birds, seascapes and fruits. Some of Merric's pottery
is simple in form
and design, with subtle and understated decoration and glazing,
while some is more complex and reveals his skill as a sculptor.
Doris
Boyd often decorated Merric's pottery. She would paint or incise landscape
scenes onto his pots, such as tall and straight gum trees delicately
applied with a fine brush, and seascapes with craggy cliffs falling
to the sea below. Doris's more refined style and delicate brushwork
contrasts with Merric's bold and more vigorous approach with the brush.
Some of Merric's pottery is dark and raw and restless. Other works are
light and fine and uplifting. Great art usually says a lot about its
creator. The expressive and complex nature of Merric Boyd is clearly
reflected through his art.
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Vase
decoration by Doris Boyd *
Collection: Bundanon Trust, Nowra |
Vase
decoration by Doris Boyd
1926 170 [h] mm * |
While Merric's pottery is well known, his drawings
are not. His drawings are powerful and original, and display, as his
pottery does, a sensitivity to and love for the natural and manmade
environment around him. His use of the tree is particularly strong.
In these drawings, trees rarely stand tall. More often than not, they
lean to one side yet remain rooted, indicating their strength and endurance
against many storms and heavy weather. Merric's drawings reveal much
about his own ability to endure adversity, and survive.
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A
White Gum,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 275x 250 mm 1951
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil and water colour 180 x 275 mm 1950
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Pencil 185 x 275 mm 1949 |
Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil and pencil 250 x 270 mm 1951 |
Merric drew designs for pots that perhaps he thought
he might make one day.
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 245 x 275 mm undated
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Four
jugs and bowl with leaf and fruit decoration, Merric Boyd
Pencil and coloured pencil 245 x 275 mm Undated |
Untitled,
Merric Boyd,
Coloured pencil 245 x 275 mm undated |
Three
bowls with leaf and fruit decoration, Merric Boyd
Pencil and coloured pencil 245 x 275 mm 1950 |
Merric often drew animals including household
pets, farm animals and native species. Some of these drawings portrayed
animals in comfortable domestic settings, while others recall his experiences
in the country.
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Poultry
Run, Merric Boyd
Pencil 278 x 185 mm 1949 |
Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Pencil, coloured pencil and crayon, 250 x 270mm undated |
Horse,
Merric Boyd, Pencil 280 x 180.5 mm 1947 |
Parrot,
Merric Boyd, Pencil 270.5 x 170.5 mm 1950
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Merric
did semi-abstract drawings, usually using the forms of tree trunks as
their basis.
These are beautiful and
highly original.
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Clump
of straight and bent trees, Merric
Boyd
Water colour 250 x 270 mm Undated
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Clump
of tall, straight trees,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 250 x 270 mm 1942 |
Clump
of trees and tall grass, Merric
Boyd,
Water colour, Colour Pencil and Wax 250 x 270 mm Undated
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Trees
with yellow and white branches, Merric
Boyd,
Water colour 250 x 270 mm Undated |
Some
of Merric's drawings, and in particular his portrayal of the sky, have
surreal qualities.
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Pencil and crayon 250x 270 mm 1949
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Telegraph
posts with birds, Merric Boyd
Pencil 180 x 270 mm Undated |
Merric enjoyed the sea and often drew it. He did
many drawings around Port Phillip Bay, including of city beaches, on the
Mornington
Peninsula and on Westernport Bay, where the family sometimes holidayed.
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A
Yacht Down the Bay, Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil pencil and wash 250 x 270 mm 1951 |
Pier
Middle Brighton, Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil & crayon with water 270 x 250 mm 1949
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 270 x 250 mm undated |
A
Sea Beach,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 250 x 270 mm 1951 |
Merric drew people, including family, friends and
Murrumbeena residents.
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil & pencil 270 x 250 mm 1950
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 270 x 250 mm 1951 |
Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil 180 x 240 mm 1955
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Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil & crayon with wash 250 x 270 mm 1951 |
| Arthur,
Guy and David all served in the Second World War and later returned to
live at Open Country at one time or another, either in the house, the
old pottery, or in other dwellings constructed on the block. There they
raised their own children, worked to develop their skills and talents
in the arts, and supported each other as they made their way after the
turbulence of the War. Lucy and Mary lived at Open Country during and
after the War with Merric and Doris. |
Merric
Boyd with, from the left, John Perceval, David Boyd, Mary Boyd
and Doris Boyd c.1942
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The
Boyd family and friends at Open Country c.1951
Back row (L-R):
Hatton Beck, Merric Boyd and David Boyd. Centre row: Yvonne Boyd with
Laurence Beck, unidentified, John Perceval, Mary Boyd, Lucy Boyd with
Robert Beck and Guy Boyd. Front: Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd and Doris Boyd. |
The 1940's saw a decline in Merric's health. While
he continued to be immensely creative, his loss of physical strength
made throwing on the wheel more difficult. He still produced thrown
pottery, but began making a greater number of hand-sculpted works. His
subjects included trees, animals, friends and family members and again
reveal his remarkable talent as a sculptor. His works were generally
small and expressive in form and convey his warm, humanist and sympathetic
view of the world, of people and of nature.
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Merric
Boyd with Dish and Spoon,
Arthur Boyd Ink 560 x380 mm c. 1947 |
Merric
Boyd, standing with Hands in Pockets,
Arthur Boyd Pencil, 180 x 270 mm c. 1947
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In the 1950's Merric drew prolificly and did thousands
of drawings. Many
older residents of Murrumbeena
who lived in the vicinity of Open Country remember Merric walking the
streets of Murrumbeena, and the Outer Circle Parklands (Boyd Park), carrying
his sketchpad and pencils. After locating a scene and subject, he would
set himself up on a fence or on the nature strip and draw, sometimes for
hours. On other occasions he would find a shrub or a flower in a resident's
yard. He would knock on their door, and displaying the impeccable manners
and gentlemanly ways he had all his life, ask to draw the subject of his
attention. He was rarely refused and often after completing his drawing,
he would knock on the door again and give away his completed work.
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Doris
Boyd, Merric
Boyd Coloured pencil 250 x 270 mm 1956 |
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While some people who received Merric's sketches chose not to keep them,
many others did, appreciating, or at the very least recognizing their
special qualities. That so many survive with local residents and in collections
elsewhere, is extremely fortunate. Merric Boyd was an artist in the truest
sense, filled with an overwhelming need to express himself and with the
ability to do so. The many drawings and ceramic works that survive him
stand as testament to his genius.
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Tree
in landscape, Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil and Pencil 180 x 275 mm 1953 |
Hillside
at sunset, Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil and crayon 180 x 250 mm 1949 |
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Merric was generally well respected within the Murrumbeena
community, not only by adults but also by local children. Many of them
sat for, and received, his drawings. There were some people who saw the
elderly Merric Boyd as
a silly old man and not worthy of respect. They were unaware of who he
was and what he had achieved in his life, often in the face of great adversity.
In particular, they were unaware of the epilepsy which had increasingly
affected him during his latter years.
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Merric
Boyd in the brown room c. 1954 |
Merric Boyd died in 1959. Doris Boyd died the following year. Open Country,
the Boyd's family home and a place that been the centre and source of
so much art and creativity, was also near the end of its time. Following
Doris's death, Lucy and Hatton Boyd Beck returned from Brisbane to live
in the house. There, they worked as artists and taught pottery. After
they left for England, the house was demolished, in 1964, for the flats
that stand there today. Whether
Open Country could have been renovated and become a museum or something
similar can be debated; it was an old house in need of a great deal
of work. But the fact remains that a great part of Australia's art heritage
was lost when Number 8 Wahroongaa Crescent was pulled down.
Little
remains today that records Merric Boyd and his family's time in Murrumbeena.
Merric and Doris's home is gone, though Merric's parent's home at Number
4 Wahroongaa Crescent still stands. The Outer Circle Parkland, the source
of so many of Merric's drawings is there, but the original post and
rail fences, the horses, the creek and the little wooden bridges that
crossed it, are long gone. The Arthur Merric Boyd (A.M.B.) Pottery,
established by Arthur Boyd, John Perceval and Peter Herbst in 1944 in
Neerim Road, is now a block of flats.
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Looking
along Dandenong Road, Merric Boyd
Coloured pencil and wash 250x 270 mm 1949 |
Untitled,
Merric Boyd
Pencil and coloured pencil 180 x 240 mm 1951 |
The streets and footpaths of Murrumbeena that
Merric Boyd walked are, of course, still there, as are many of the trees,
shrubs and scenes he drew. One can walk these streets, and with a little
effort, imagine Merric Boyd walking the same streets and drawing, imagine
the little cottage with the wild garden that was his home, and imagine
Murrumbeena as a young Merric Boyd knew it - a place of Open Country.
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Open Country, Believed to be painted by
Emma Minnie Boyd c. 1915
Gallery Of Merric Boyd Drawings
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