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Overview
"No one gets the softness of fur like Lucy. Or the hardness of pangolin scales. Or the whiteness of white, which, considering her medium is essentially black, is nothing short if miraculous" - Lizzie Riches, painter.
Lucy Boydell is a Norfolk based artist recognised for her large-scale charcoal drawings of animals, rendered with precision and expressive detail. Born and raised in Cambridge, she developed a strong connection to both nature and draughtsmanship from an early age. Since completing her studies at Central Saint Martins in 1995, Boydell has exhibited extensively across the UK and Europe, with her works held in private collections internationally. Boydell's practice is grounded in direct observation. Often visiting farms, smallholdings, and zoological settings to study her subjects firsthand and meet the farmers, breeders and zookeepers responsible for looking after them. Lucy aims to capture not only the physical form of her subjects but also their character and presence. Working primarily with compressed charcoal on Fabriano paper, her drawings convey the nuanced textures of fur, feathers, and skin through a monochromatic palette. Her approach balances detailed representation with expressive mark-making, resulting in works that are both anatomically accurate and emotionally resonant.
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Works for sale
Lucy Boydell
"Free Spirit", Wild Exmoor Pony of Wild Ken Hill, NorfolkCharcoal and Chalk53 x 53 cms / 20¾ x 20¾ inchesDescription
Lucy Boydell recalls her first encounter with the wild Exmoor ponies at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk as an experience that would stay with her long after she left the field. It was just after 8am on a July morning, during a brief lull in the first heatwave of the summer. The day was still cool and the sunlight soft, before it climbed higher and became too bright. Guided through field after field, Lucy passed a small pond beneath the trees where the ponies came to drink and wallow, pushed through hedgerows alive with butterflies, crossed ditches and even disturbed a rootling Tamworth sow. Then, at the far end of the final field, they appeared. Twenty-five or thirty ponies stood amongst bright purple thistles and tall yellow ragwort, dark, sturdy shapes at the edge of the meadow. Her guide left Lucy to observe them, wandering off to inspect the hedgerows, while she turned her attention towards the herd.
The ponies looked back at her, flicking away flies with shaggy manes and great, sweeping tails. As Lucy changed her zoom lens for a shorter range, something remarkable happened. One by one, they began to move towards her, with quiet purpose, until they came to a halt just a few metres away. She found herself looking into deep, dark eyes framed by long lashes. Their coats were richly mottled and whiskered, and Lucy was immediately captivated by the textures before her. She could already imagine how the charcoal would come alive on paper through the marks she would make every rough coat, tangled mane and sweeping tail offering another texture to explore.
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