Artist Database

Born in Pietermaritzburg, Errol Boyley’s adventurous spirit as a youth resulted in his being sent to an Industrial Trade School near Heidelberg and an Agricultural School in Delager’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 was deepened whilst he was in the army and after the war, he played the electric guitar professionally in night-clubs in Johannesburg and for a dance band and for the SABC. His career as a musician enabled him to pursue his other interest and paint during the day. He was largely a self-taught artist, apart from a year spent studying drawing through the Natal Technical College in the early 1940s. He moved to Knysna in 1946, where he became a full-time artist and was mentored and influenced by artist W.G. Wiles. 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 primarily for oil and watercolour paintings of landscapes especially of the Karoo and the Winelands, seascapes, still life studies, and interiors, but also for his images of figures and wildlife. Boyley’s first solo exhibition was hosted by the Herbert Evans Gallery in 1956, and this was followed by numerous group and solo exhibitions. Boyley’s work is represented in public and private collections throughout South Africa. He spent the last years of his life in Pietermaritzburg where he died in 2007.