BIO & ARTIST STATEMENT

Stephen Boyd is a native Missouri watercolor artist living and working in the Kansas City area. He developed his love of watercolors after his mother gave him a tin pan set of 8 colors when he was a preschooler. He thought he was in heaven and happily painted for hours on end. Some of his favorite things to paint were buildings, animals, and birds (a lot of the same subjects he enjoys painting today). Art remained an important part of Stephen’s life through grade school, junior high, and high school as he included art in his academic studies. Stephen went on to study art and architecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. He loved the university’s rural setting and fell in love with the nearby Konza Prairie Biological Station (Tallgrass Prairie Preserve), which he painted often. Stephen has received national recognition for his art including the National Scholastic Art's highest award. He has also had the distinct pleasure of working with many organizations such as the Frank Lloyd Wright Allen House Foundation, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, and individuals including Frank Lloyd Wright homeowners.

Stephen’s art is fueled by his passion for nature and architecture. Nature and architecture both exhibit exciting layers of color, detail, and texture while being the setting for our daily lives. Stephen strives to capture and convey these “layers of our lives” with the many color and tone layers of his watercolor paintings. Whether it’s painting the shuttlecocks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Ennis House in Los Angeles, or the tallgrass of the Konza Prairie, these layers of colors harmonize with one another, producing very unique artistic “songs.” It is Stephen’s goal as an artist to share his “songs” with others and have his prints and paintings evoke melodic memories, harmonize celebrations, and resonate through people’s lives and the ones they love.

Stephen is very proud to be a native Missourian and has lived and worked most of his life in the Kansas City area. He expresses this pride by painting the many special and unique “songs” of Kansas City. His painted “songs” include the Country Club Plaza, the Sky Sculptures, the World War I Memorial, Powell Gardens, the Western Auto Building, and many other KC landmarks.

Through his academic studies, Stephen developed a deep appreciation for architecture. Among his favorite architects are Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, E. Fay Jones, Greene and Greene, Donald Wexler, Richard Neutra, and John Lautner. Stephen has visited many of their buildings across the country and loves to paint them, capture their essence, and share his “songs” with others as these places hold special meaning for people and the events of their lives.