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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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Werke
Lucy Boydell
The Great Bustard SpectacularCharcoal and Chalk106 x 106 cms / 41¾ x 41¾ inchesDescription
"Photographed at Watatunga Wildlife Reserve in Norfolk. Ed Pope converted 170 acres of Norfolk farmland to create ‘as wild a habitat as possible for captive breeding program of declining or threatened deer, antelope and birds for possible release back into the wild. A Norfolk Serengeti.’ Ed brought in the bustard I photographed from the Great Bustard Group at Salisbury, with whom he works closely, created as a breeding and release project to bring this heaviest of flying birds back into the English landscape, having been hunted to extinction in the 1800s, now back in Norfolk - a habitat which 200 years ago was full of bustard. 'Initial observation in the autumn revealed the character of this mighty bird; I was bowled over by his energetic character, full of humour and his jaunty gait; his strong, long neck; crazed patterning; enormous, glowering almost prehistoric looking eye and fabulous, long, floaty cheek whiskers, reminding me of an Edwardian gentleman. Plenty to explore in charcoal. And there was more… Something I could never have imagined: his extraordinary sound, a sort of mixture of unique honk, followed by a raspy, throaty tongue trilling… finishing with a heavy sigh; extraordinary! and completely unpredictable…
Utterly captivating, hugely entertaining… I was hooked by this unforgettable feathered dandy. I left with the promise of even more to behold in the Spring" - Lucy Boydell.
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