The Orchid and the Painter
"Arthur Boyd grew up in Victoria in the 1930s, one of the extensive Boyd family of painters, ceramicists, architects, writers and musicians. He found his fortune in England where he lived from the early 1960s onwards. His work sold so well that ten years later he was able to add to his property portfolio, a farmstead on the Shoalhaven River in NSW. A prolific painter, drawer, printer and ceramicist, he and Yvonne relaxed only when they made the annual pilgrimage to the Shoalhaven, travelling by sea in both directions to and from Britain. Ensconced by the River, he would often work in the landscape, en plein aire, responding with paint and gesture to what he saw in front of him." Orchids appeared often in his work, one of which the painting above being known as the Nodding Greenhood orchid. The editor of Australian Orchid Review in which this article appeared thought it more likely to be the Rusty Hood orchid (Pterostylis rufa)