Errol BOYLEY (1918 – 2007)
Craighall Weir
date unknown
oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Pietermaritzburg, Errol Boyley’s adventurous spirit as a youth resulted in him being sent to an Industrial Trade School near Heidelberg and an Agricultural School in De Jager’s Drift to complete his education. He then worked as a casual labourer before joining the Natal Field Artillery when the Second World War broke out in 1939.
Boyley was interested in art and music from a young age. His interest in music deepened while he was in the army and, after the war, he played the electric guitar in nightclubs in Johannesburg, for a dance band and for the SABC. His career as a musician enabled him to paint during the day.
Apart from a year spent studying drawing through the Natal Technical College in the early 1940s, he was a self-taught artist.
He moved to Knysna in 1946, where he became a full-time artist and was mentored and influenced by artist WG Wiles.
His first solo exhibition was hosted by the Herbert Evans Gallery in 1956.
After a brief time back in Johannesburg, he moved to Ramsgate where he opened the Errol Boyley Gallery in 1978, and later the Bordeaux Street Gallery in Franschhoek in 1995.
Boyley saw himself as a painter of natural things. He is known for his oil and watercolour landscapes (especially of the Karoo and the Winelands), seascapes, still life studies, and interiors, as well as his images of figures and wildlife.
Boyley’s work is represented in public and private collections throughout South Africa.