Shropshire Magazine

Kay Boyce in the hills above her borders home.

Abigail Bates meets an artist whose refined and elegant paintings contrast with the remote and wild area in which she lives. Pictures: Mike Hayward

After meandering around seemingly endless country lanes around the Welsh border, and enduring a mountainous trek just to reach the front door, a visitor might expect artist Kay Boyce to be a tortured soul with a tunic and a paint-splashed ponytail.

But the woman who comes to the door is a far cry from that stereotyped image of an artist.

“I’m impressed you made it up here,” she laughs with reason; Kay’s home, in the midst of the Llansilin hills near Oswestry, feels like another world. Her nearest neighbour is about a mile away, and modern essentials like sat navs and mobile phones tend to fail motorists who are forced to rely on an old-fashioned map for the journey.

Stepping inside her home is like stepping back in time; her living room is decorated with antique furniture and provides a perfect retreat for Kay to shut herself off from the world and pour herself into creating work for her forthcoming exhibition.

But despite the seclusion she lives in and the passion with which she paints, Kay comes across as level-headed, focused and a true professional.

Taking time out of her busy work schedule creating new pieces, Kay explains how her career in art has taken shape. She has provided work for several magazines and major publishers, before making her name as a figurative artist, developing her own series of pieces based around the theme of ballet, and exploring the female form.

An example of Kay Boyce’s work: Lucy, Sitting.

But it’s taken Kay grit and determination to get to where she is today. It hasn’t been a smooth ride.

“It’s not an easy path to tread,” she says, and she’s right. Kay’s passion first emerged as a child, when she would sit for hours drawing on the back of rolls of wallpaper, but then lay dormant until she gave up her ‘real’ job to study illustration at Wrexham College.

“I sold insurance, I sold vacuum cleaners, and I was a cosmetics consultant,” she remembers. “I also worked as a secretary, but then I was doing some graphic design work when I was asked to do some illustration and I realised I needed to go to college. I didn’t really know what would be at the end of it, it was just the passion of wanting to do it. I gave everything up and went, and it was a risk because art wasn’t considered the typical career to go into.”

Twenty years later and Kay has not looked back. She was taken on by a series of agents following her graduation and is now preparing work for her forthcoming exhibition which she is excited about as it allows her the freedom to create the art she has longed to, to work without a brief, and above all to meet the people who enjoy her work.

“I want to do my own exhibitions because it’s nice to meet the people who buy the work, and you get some collectors who want to meet me too,” says Kay. “It also gives you the chance to complete work you might not otherwise get the chance to; when you are doing an exhibition you can put different pieces in there that you feel you want to paint.”

Kay’s collection is inspired by her second passion in life, dancing, and being trained in ballet, contemporary dance and salsa has given her an insight into the discipline.

She now plans to further develop her work into still life and male forms, but will continue to work with the ballet theme.

Although Kay paints to make her living, she gets more out of her work than just a livelihood.

“People say they feel as though my work is quite calming, and I do feel calm when I’m working, although I think it’s just the fact that I love painting,” she says. “It’s a lovely feeling knowing you will get up in the morning and be excited about starting your work. Today I did a bit of shopping, and I couldn’t wait to come home and start painting.”

One wonders whether there are meanings hidden behind her images, but she laughs and shakes her head.

An example of Kay Boyce’s work.

“I’m not really that arty. I focus more on composition and the lines on the paper. I’m influenced by [Sir Lawrence] Alma-Tadema and Douglas Hoffman. They both produce very realistic work so I look at the way they paint their models, and try to have an eye for detail. I look at they way they’ve painted and try to aspire to it,” she explains.

Kay works an eight-hour day every day, setting herself a start and finish time, and ensuring her days are productive.

“People think you just sit and mess around all day, but you don’t,” she laughs.

Perhaps her discipline comes from her days as a commercial illustrator. Kay would be given a brief and a series of deadlines, and often spent 24 hours at a time behind the easel.

“When you work for an agency they give you a deadline and you have to reach it, otherwise you won’t get any more work. There’s also immense pressure; you are only as good as your last picture,” she says.

When she’s not working, Kay enjoys taking walks in the countryside that is on her doorstep, and working out at a gym in Chester, as well as dining out. She is also passionate about antiques, and has built up a collection over the last 10 years, an interest reflected in her home.

Kay also has a very busy social life, but painting is her first priority.

“I’ve got a wonderful circle of friends, and I like my wine, but if I’ve got work on then I just cancel everything, and things like the gym suffer,” she says.

As for what the future holds for her, she admits it’s impossible to say.

“In this day and age you just don’t know what will happen, especially with art, and things change, but I’m open to change,” she says.

Kay loves Shropshire, but still has a dream to live in France; she says she will just have to wait to see what happens.

There’s only one thing that is for certain – she will always paint.

As she says: “I don’t think artists ever really retire, I think I will always be doing something.”

• Kay’s exhibition at Sarah Samuel’s in Rossett, Wrexham, will open on April 8 and continue until April 19. For details, call (01244) 579021. Visit the website www.kayboyceoriginals.com for further information about the artist.

Kay has filled her house with antiques.