This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The following biography was submitted July 2006 by Edward Bentley, Art Collector and Researcher from Lansing, Michigan.
A well-known Indiana artist, Marion (Pierce) Boyd was the daughter of
Wesley I. and Grace Pierce. She was born and raised in Warsaw,
Indiana, where she graduated from Warsaw High School in 1926. She
went on to attend the University of Wisconsin.
From a biographical article in the Warsaw Times Union, titled
“Marion Boyd – Her Own Story,” the artist commented on her earlier life
and artistic training: “An artist is often asked, ‘How did you
start to paint?’ Draw, I always have, from the time I was a fascinated
on-looker at my father’s drawing board.
An artist cousin, Raymond Sisley, former art director of the Chicago Tribune,
gave me my first artist’s set of watercolors. Appreciation and
encouragement from my parents was a beginning. High school and
college art classed provided a foundation in drawing, color and
composition. But it was in the year 1940 that I seriously began
to learn to use oil paints.
Allee Gerard and Inez Bolinger, of Warsaw, each contributed to my
increasing interest in painting. Summer classes under Homer
Davisson and Mr. Marsh, of Fort Wayne, showed me how much I had to
learn. Mr. Davisson was a wonderful art teacher, and over the
years my respect for his ability as an artist and a fine person has
deepened.
Mr. Leo Ruckle awarded me my first prize at the Kosciusko county
fair. A year or two later I received another first prize at the
Fort Wayne Art School Show.
After moving to Anderson, Indiana, I was invited to membership in the
Anderson Society of Artists, a group that is stimulating with its
annual juried competitive show. A second prize in 1947 and a
first in 1948 coincided with the acceptance of my first painting for
hanging in the annual Hoosier Salon in Indianapolis. Many years
since 1950 have seen my name in the Hoosier Salon catalogue. In
1953 my Gray Spring Day, was awarded the Mark Honeywell prize for landscape composition.
This spring (1955) in the Wabash River Valley show at the Sheldon Swope Gallery, Terre Haute, my Forsythia won first prize for floral arrangement. Sunlit Beech received honorable mention, after receiving a first in the fall Anderson Show.
As a member of the Anderson Civic Art Association, I have served with
the exhibit committee and also as secretary and president. In
1952 they sponsored my first one-man show.
Brown County has been one of my favorite painting spots; there I have
studied with C. Curry Bohm and Gianni Cilfone, both fine artists and
teachers. More recently I’ve enjoyed painting the clear rippling
stream at Spring Mill State Park. It is several years since
I’ve painted in the Indiana Dunes, which I love.
I can recommend painting as being absorbing, stimulating, rewarding -
sometimes frustrating – but never dull. Personally I do not find
it relaxing – though Mr. Churchill and President Eisenhower do.”
Mrs. Ralph (Marion) Boyd moved to Nashville, Indiana, where she became
a member of the Brown County Art Guild, after having resided in
Anderson, Indiana for many years. The artist died on June 3, 1970 at
the Bartholomew County Hospital at Columbus after an extended illness.
Excerpted references include: “Marion Boyd – Her Own Story,” by Marion Boyd, Warsaw times-Union, November 12, 1955; Obituary for Mrs. Ralph Boyd, Warsaw Times-Union, January 6, 1970.
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