Kay Boyce Biography
Kay Boyce was born in Sheffield. As a child she would often spend hours at a time drawing on rolls of wallpaper; this was the beginning of her passion for drawing. Kay Boyce studied illustration at college before working as a freelance illustrator. She produced editorial work for Woman's Weekly, Bella, My Weekly, Sunday Express and Woman's Own. Her illustration work has carried her through to major book publishers such as Hodder & Staughton, Wadsworth Romantics, Mills & Boon and Mandarin. Although Kay Boyce is proud of her achievement in commercial illustration her true vocation is as an Artist.
Kay's career as an Artist has flourished; her pastels and pencil drawings have become instantly recognisable. Kay Boyce is often to be found working in her studio at her home in the Glyn Morlas valley, near Oswestry, with the background voices of Radio Four.
Kay Boyce is now rated as the UK's leading female form Artist. Friends, acquaintances and sometimes herself often model for her graceful studies of the female form. Kay Boyce has the petite form of a dancer.
She trained in ballet and contemporary dance; it is this that has given her an insight into her subject and an aptitude for reproducing it. In Kay's own words 'There is nothing quite like the feeling and movement of dance': in latter years Kay Boyce has taken up salsa dancing!
It is her empathy for the female form in movement, combined with a love of original Victorian clothes and antiques which she collects that inspire her to produce the soft, yet sensual images that have become her trademark. There is a fine line between eroticism and sensuality and Kay achieves the right balance. Kay Boyce also draws inspiration, from famous works such as those by Edgar Degas, Botticelli and Alma Tadema: their use of composition and how they portray the texture in their materials intrigue her.
Kay Boyce rarely titles her images herself, although
there is one particular title that holds a place in her heart: 'Little Lizzy',
this is the pet name her Father gave her when she was a young girl.
It is Kay's ambition to live in France. It is the way of life, the food, the people and the space that appeal to her. The warm weather of Bordeaux is a world away from the windswept rainy valleys of the Shropshire Dales, in which Kay spends her pastime walking.
Kay Boyce hopes to try her hand at oil painting and sculpture 'you get such richness and depth with oils. I feel the subject matter would lend itself well. I would love to sculpt semi nudes, probable the female form, but possibly male, too!'