Alicia Boyle

Alicia Boyle spent her childhood in County Derry and in London. As an adult she lived in London, Northampton, Bantry, and Dublin and also travelled widely in Europe. She studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art where she was taught by F. Ernest Jackson who she greatly admired. Boyle’s first job was to paint a mural at Great Ormond Street Hospital. In the early years of her career she made commercial designs for posters and wrappings. Decades later she recalled, ‘I traipsed the streets of London with my folio to different publishing offices - I used to be shown the door because I was a woman and told again and again “We don't employ women.”’ She largely supported herself through teaching. Boyle’s first solo show was held at Peter Jones, London (1945). She exhibited regularly in Belfast and Dublin, including the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (1950). A retrospective of her work was held in IMMA in 1989.