Doris Gough was born on the 20th of November 1889. She was the youngest of the six children of journalist and editor Evelyn Gough (nee Rigg) and naval officer Thomas Bunbury Gough, and grew up in St Kilda. Her father died when she was ten years of age. In 1908, after completing her schooling, she studied art at the National Gallery Art School. While there she met and formed a close relationship with Penleigh Boyd. It was through him that she met his older brother, Merric. Doris
and Merric Boyd were married on October 12 1915 at St. Stephens Church
in Elsternwick. Merric had already established a studio residence at
number 8 Wahroongaa Crescent in Murrumbeena which he called Open Country.
Born in 1888, he had come to Murrumbeena in 1913 and with the assistance
of his parents, Arthur Merric Boyd and Emma Minnie Boyd, built a pottery
there.
In
late 1916, Merric sailed to England to serve in the First World War,
leaving Doris with their first born child, Lucy, born in August 1916.
As a result of this and in order to help care for Doris and baby Lucy,
Merric's parents and Doris's mother, Evelyn, moved to the Crescent to
support them. This meant that for six years, between 1916 and 1922,
the extended Boyd family occupied the entire northern flank of Wahroongaa
Crescent. Merric was overseas for two years and during that time, Doris
and Lucy lived with her mother at her home that she called Green Pastures.
Open Country was rented to Victor and Dorothy Rathausky, who with their
family, became life-long friends of the Boyds. In late 1919 Merric returned
to Australia and resumed his pottery making.
From the first year of marriage, Doris worked closely with Merric, supporting him in his artistic pursuits. She decorated many of his pots, often with line drawings of trees and rural landscapes. While much of her decoration is unsigned on his pots, it can often be recornized by its more refined and impressionistic nature than Merric's. She also painted in oils and watercolours, frequently using the central family room at Open Country, the brown room, as her studio. She sketched and painted in the Open Country garden, and on family picnics and sketching trips in the local area and further afield, such as on the Mornington Peninsula and around Westernport Bay. She helped Merric with the arduous task of selling his pottery in city stores like Mair and Lyne, Georges, the Mutual Stores, the Primrose Pottery Shop and Lily Ronald's florist shop. In their early years they caught Murrumbeena's hansom service to Murrumbeena Station before catching a train to Flinders Street. Carrying heavy cases packed with pottery they would go from store to store selling their pottery. Doris often did the negation of the sales, Merric finding this task too stressful. Doris also would sit up with Merric for the many hours it took to complete a pottery firing. David
Boyd "The
firing of the kiln was spread over two or three days. It would need
to be stoked at one or two hour intervals depending on the stage of
firing. Merric and Doris would sit in the brown room, chatting together
during the night. Merric would catch up on his sleep over the two or
three days it took the kiln to cool."
In her early years at Murrumbeena Doris frequently exhibited her paintings. Her last exhibition was with friend and fellow artist John Yule in May 1947. In addition to painting, Doris wrote prose and poetry. Lucy Beck "She used to paint a lot of memories of dawn. She had a truly intuitive feeling. Granny Boyd had a fantastic technique, but she didn't have this wonderful sort of impressionistic feeling that my mother had. I loved my mother's painting. Painting was to her the important thing, and the children." David Boyd "I suppose you'd say that Doris was essentially an intellectual, whereas Merric was all emotion, and creative fire. But there certainly was no lack of creative fire in Doris. She was constantly at it. She was a very loving woman. She was marvelous. She was very intelligent and had a great wit. She was abundant in her energy and was always on the go. They were both intensely active in a creative way." Arthur Boyd was born in 1920, Guy in 1923, David in 1924 and Mary in 1926. Throughout these busy child-raising years, Doris provided her family with the support and stability it needed while Merric was busy making his pottery and bringing the family its income. In the early 1920's and with the support of Evelyn Gough, herself a Christian Scientist, Doris and Merric adopted the Christian Science faith. Christian Science gave Doris and Merric a great deal of comfort and support through some of the more challenging periods of their lives. One of the greatest of these occurred in 1926 when Merric's pottery exploded and was destroyed by fire. As a result of the fire, later on that year, Merric taught pottery at the New England Girls' School in Armidale New South Wales. A public appeal was established to raise money to build Merric a new pottery, and in 1927 it was completed, allowing him to fire his own pottery again. Despite the financial difficulties brought on by the fire and the Depression that followed in 1929, the Boyd children were always fed, and while their clothes may have sometimes been worn and patched, they were loved and always cared for. David
Boyd "Times
were certainly lean during the Depression years. Despite this I never
remember not having adequate clothing, even if those clothes were tatty
and mended hand-me-downs. And we never went without food. Doris always
believed in feeding us all properly. She gave us food and warm clothing
and an abundance of love. They were the top priorities."
Doris and Merric always encouraged their children to explore and practice art, believing it to be a form of normal and everyday expression. David Boyd "There were always plenty of places for us to draw and there was always plenty to draw with and on. We were permitted to carve and scratch and draw and scribble anything on the walls. At that time Guy, Mary and I slept in my mother's bedroom. We carved a dragon through the plaster. I can't recall how long it took, but I remember working on our dragon over a period of time. It might have been months, perhaps even longer. Doris encouraged us. She used to compliment us on the way our dragon was coming along." Lucy Beck " I remember Arthur drew and carved a landscape into the wall in mummy's bedroom. It was about two metres high and three metres wide and had a huge tree in it. A lot of it was in a soft blue colour." In the early 1930's, Max Nicholson, a university graduate in English Literature, became a friend of the Boyds, initially coming to Open Country to recruit members to the local scout group. He introduced the Boyds to new books, ideas and people, widening the intellectual scope of Open Country and encouraged a tradition of open and lively discussion that would continue in the decades to come. David
Boyd "Max
was a very polite and intelligent youth. He became a very close friend
of the family, particularly of my mother. Later on, he brought people
such as Yosl Bergner, Peter Herbst and a number of university lecturers
and graduates to Murrumbeena. He introduced a level of literature that
we may not have had. He widened the scope at Murrumbeena and was a catalyst
for so many things."
In 1934, Doris and Merric worked for the Australian Porcelain Insulator Company at Yarraville. The company made insulators from porcelain. Merric threw this form of clay to make pots while Doris shared the decoration with him. They would leave for Yarraville early in the morning and return late at night. They remained there for only a few months, the journey and time away from their family being too great. With the outbreak of World War Two, Doris and Merric saw their three sons enter the armed forces. David Boyd " She had great faith. She believed that we would be alright and she turned out to be right, one way or another. But it didn't stop her from being anxious. Mary told me this. She talked to Mary at length about her feelings at the time, about how awful it was. Not only just for Doris herself being a mother, but for others too, their husbands and brothers being carted off in the First War and then the system coming along to claim their children in the Second. That would have had an affect on her." After the War, as family members returned to Open Country, they brought with them their own families and friends and social circles. There was a coming together of a wide range of people, including artists and intellectuals and writers. The post-war environment at Open Country was exceptionally stimulating. David Boyd "There were parties and gatherings and so on; it was all very nice and friendly. Max Nicholson, the Langleys, the Coutts, Sid Nolan, Charlie and Barbara Blackman, and Tim and Betty Burstall would come over. I think Yosl Bergner was still in Melbourne at that time. There'd be 50 people or more in the brown room. Maybe I'd be playing piano and people would be dancing around, maybe smaller groups would be discussing something to do with the arts or literature or politics, anything." As these Doris was often at the centre of these discussions. She established many enduring friendships throughout these years. David Boyd "Doris was always absorbed in whatever she was doing, whether it was painting or drawing or writing, and took an interest in what we were all doing. She was greatly loved by everybody." Lucy
Beck "My mother was very interested in writing. It's
really wonderful that she had this time, discussing things."
In the middle and latter years of his life Merric Boyd suffered from epilepsy. While remaining incredibly creative throughout his entire life, this condition did have a impact on his ability to care for himself. As a result, Doris increasingly became Merric's carer, enabling him to remain artistically productive and expressive. By the mid 1950's, those of her children who had been living at Open Country and supporting their parents had moved away to establish their own homes. While all of the Boyd children remained close to their parents and actively supported them, the vibrancy at Open Country that Doris had enjoyed also left, leaving Doris to care care for Merric. He died quietly at Open Country in September 1959. Doris remained at Open Country. She lived there with her grandson Robert Beck who was in Melbourne working with and learning from David Boyd. Doris died at Open Country nine months after Merric's death, on 13 June 1960.
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