Wombat and Europa

David Boyd (b.1924 ) enjoyed a family background of pottery and painting that also nurtured the talents of his elder brothers Arthur and Guy, and sisters Lucy and Mary.

David first received critical acclaim as a master potter when, during the fifties and sixties, he worked in a creative partnership with his wife Hermia.

His career as a painter began in 1957 with a series of symbolic paintings on Australian explorers. Controversy surrounded these works and subsequent paintings based on the tragic history of the Tasmanian Aborigines. In 1961 David and his family moved to Rome and then London, where his work first won significant international recognition .

After a brief return to Australia in 1968, some years were spent living and working in the south of France before a permanent move back to Australia in 1975. Since then he has painted several major series of works.

In 1994 David Boyd became artist-in-residence at the School of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney.

His work appears in the collections of most Australian State Galleries, the Australian War Memorial, major universities in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, and major public and private collections in Britain, Japan and the USA.