b'2825MERRIC BOYD (18881959) pottery jug with hand-painted rural sceneand two applied koalas perched on the branch handle,incised Merric Boyd, 1941,14cm high, 15cm wideMerric Boyd described his great joy in successfully throwingthe clay deposits in the Murrumbeena and Oakleigh areas, his first pot at Archibald McNairs Burnley Pottery inand prepared it himself.1908, when he was just 20 years old. Boyd established aBoyd was fascinated and inspired by the natural world. For studio workshop at Murrumbeena and pottery kilns werehim, pottery was the perfect vehicle to express his affection established there in 1911 with the support of his family. Hefor Australian fauna and flora and its landscapes, and the studied under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin at thebeauty he saw in the world. This, together with his deep National Gallery School where he took up ceramics as aspiritual beliefs and his certainty in the power of love, led path to sculpture, but settled on pottery as his medium. Hehim to create truly unique Australian works of ceramic art. held his first exhibition of stoneware, fired in McNair BrosWhile he was not the first potter to use native fauna and kiln, at the Centreway in Melbourne in 1912, and his secondflora in pottery, he raised its use to new levels of artistry exhibition at Besant Lodge soon afterwards. and acceptance. He is recognised as being Australias first Merric had begun making pottery at a time when obtainingstudio potter and a pioneer in his field.the necessary equipment and materials was difficult. As[Adapted from The Life and Art of Merric Boyd.]a result, he largely made what he required himself. He built pug mills, grinders, throwing wheels and kilns, and$1,5002,500made glazes from basic oxides. To obtain clay, he utilized 25'