William Merric Boyd was born on June 24th, 1888 in St Kilda in his paternal grandfather's house, Glenfern. He was the second born of five childrento painters Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie Boyd. His brother, Gilbert (1886) was killed in a horse riding accident at the age of nine years at the amily's property, The Grange at Harkaway. Merric had two younger brothers, Penleigh (1890) and Martin (1893), and a sister, Helen (1903). Merric did his schooling at Haileybury College in Brighton and in 1905 worked for a year as a jackaroo in the Riverina area of New South Wales on a family property.

In 1906 Merric studied at Dookie Agricultural College. In 1907 his parents purchased a dairy farm at Yarra Glen, north-east of Melbourne. It was bought principally for Merric 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's art school.

Merric became interested in sculpture through his family's friendship with sculptor, Web Gilbert. His first association with a ommercial pottery was at Archibald McNair's Burnley Pottery in Melbourne, where he bought his clay. While there he saw a pot being thrown on a wheel. He tried it 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.

In 1913 Merric's parents bought for him a property at 8 Wahroongaa Crescent in Murrumbeena, and with their assistance, built a small weatherboard residence and 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.

Merric began making pottery at a time when obtaining the necessary equipment and materials was difficult. As a result, he largely made what he required himself. 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.

In 1915 Merric married artist Doris Gough at St. Stephens Church in Elsternwick. They had met through Merric's brother, Penleigh; he and Doris had studied together at the National Gallery art school. From their ealiest years of marriage, Merric and Doris worked both together and separately in their artistic pursuits. Doris wrote poetry and painted with watercolours and oil paints. She also decorated a substantial amount of Merric's pottery. Merric continued to throw his pots and develop his skills in ceramics. In particular he was very successful in finding ways to combine sculptural forms with his thrown pots.

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 Gough moved to Wahroongaa Crescent to support Doris in Merric's absence. Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie built a house they called Tralee at 4 Wahroongaa Crescent, while Evelyn built a house she called Green Pastures at 12 Wahroongaa Crescent. As a result, for about six years between 1916 and 1922, 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 1923, 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, Georges and the Primrose Pottery Shop. His exhibitions and demonstrations were frequently reported in the press and he was described in one newspaper article as 'The King of Melbourne Potters'.

Merric and Doris' second child, Arthur was born at Open Country in 1920, followed by Guy (1923), David (1924) and Mary (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. During this time, Merric fired his pottery at the studio of Hatton Beck, an Oakleigh potter who he met around this time. Hatton would go on to marry Merric's daughter, Lucy in 1939.

The fire had a major impact on Merric's health. It is generally understood that his first major epileptic seizure took place shortly after this event. Throughout this time he and Doris continued to sell their pottery in the city. They would catch a train into Melbourne and carry their suitcases packed with pots to the different stores. In 1927, and out of financial necessity, Merric briefly taught pottery at New England Girls' School in Armadale, New South Wales.

Along with the fire and the demands of a growing family, the Great Depression made life difficult for the Boyds, as it did for countless others. 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.

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 in life was surprised to discover that this was not the case.

Merric 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. He is accepted as being Australia's first studio potter and a pioneer in his field.

Many of Merric's works feature trees and branches, gum leaves, gum nut 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. He bent and twisted branches and leaves around his pots. Many 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 reveal his great 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' 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 uplifting. Great art usually says a lot about its creator. The expressive and complex nature of Merric Boyd is clearly reflected through his art.

Merric drew designs for pots that perhaps he thought he might make one day.

He often drew animals such as 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.

Merric did semi-abstract drawings, usually using the forms of tree trunks as their basis. These are beautiful and highly original.

Some of Merric's drawings, and in particular his portrayal of the sky, have surrealist qualities.

Merric enjoyed the sea and often drew it. He did many drawings around Port Phillip Bay, including of city beaches and those on the Mornington Peninsula, and on Westernport Bay where his family sometimes holidayed.

Merric drew people including family, friends and Murrumbeena residents.

 

Merric's sons, 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.

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, people and nature.

 

In the 1950's Merric drew prolificly. He did thousands of drawings in his Spirax drawing pads. 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 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.

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.

Merric was generally well respected within the Murrumbeena community, not only by adults but also by local children. Many of them sat for him and then received his drawings. There were some who saw him 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.

Merric Boyd died on the 9th September, 1959, at the age of seventy-one at Open Country. The cause of death was renal failure, the result of medication he had been taking to moderate the impact of his epilepsy. Doris remained at Open Countrey and died there 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 nearing the end of its time. Following Doris' death, Lucy and Hatton Boyd Beck returned to Open Country from Brisbane where they had been living. There, they worked as artists and taught pottery. In 1963 Open Country was sold to a development company. The house was demolished in 1964 for the 16 unit flats that are there today. Little remains today that records Merric Boyd and his family's time in Murrumbeena. Merric and Doris' home is gone, though Merric's parents' 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 streets and footpaths of Murrumbeena that Merric Boyd walked are, of course, still there, as are many of the trees 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.

Open Country, believed to be painted by Emma Minnie Boyd c. 1915

Gallery Of Merric Boyd Drawings