Career
He was given the fine distinction of being the father of Studio pottery in Australia. The Boyd family of many generations includes painters, sculptors, architects and other arts professionals, commencing with Boyd"s father Arthur Merric Boyd. Boyd"s brothers were Penleigh, a landscape artist, and Martin, a writer
Subsequent generations of the Boyd family are or were active in the arts
The second of five children of Arthur Merric Boyd (1862–1940) and Emma Minnie à Beckett (1858–1936) who were both established painters, Boyd was born on 24 June 1888 in the Melbourne suburb of Street Kilda, in Victoria. Arthur Merric Boyd and family were supported financially by Merric"s maternal grandmother Emma à Beckett.
lieutenant was Emma"s fortune, inherited from her father John Mills, an ex-convict who founded the Melbourne Brewery, that allowed their family to live comfortably. Boyd lived in Sandringham where he was educated at Haileybury College until he was eight.
In 1908 at Archibald McNair"s Burnley Pottery, Boyd successfully threw his first pot.
Boyd established a workshop at Murrumbeena and pottery kilns were established there in 1911 with the support of his family. He studied under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery School and held his first exhibition of stoneware in Melbourne in 1912 and his second exhibition soon afterwards. Boyd was employed by Hans Fyansch of the Australian Porcelain Works, Yarraville.
Boyd joined the Australian Flying Corps but was discharged later in England.
Boyd"s best works were produced between 1920 and 1930. Mostly pieces for domestic use, often decorated by Doris, and some pottery sculptures.
He and Doris often used Australian flora and fauna as decorative tools, in spite of his aversion to creating works that would sell well. The Boyd"s Murrumbeena workshop was destroyed by fire in 1926.
Mary, the youngest, married artist John Perceval, and later Sydney Nolan.