FROM BOWLS GREEN TO WEDDING PAINTING

It can be hard to think of original ideas when you’re planning a wedding, it seems everything has been done before, but New Zealand bowler Mandy Boyd has a new idea. She’s making a name for herself as a live wedding painter and is being booked by couples all over the country to capture a moment in time on canvas.

Swapping her bowls kit for performance art, Mandy, a bronze medal winner in the fours at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 alongside Selina Goddard, Amy McIlroy and Val Smith, provides a unique wedding service where she paints weddings live at the venue recording a moment of the day in paint on canvas. She’s also been featured on TV talking about her job!

“Live wedding painting beautifully records one of the most magical days in a couple’s life, while providing great entertainment for their guests,” says 31-year-old Mandy who followed her sister Angela into the sport when she started playing in 2006 while at still at high school.

“My service is a very unique addition to a wedding,” she continued.

“Not many people know about wedding painting so it gives the event that wow factor. Clients love the extra entertainment and treasure the beautiful painting to display in their home. It’s a really cool piece of art that you get to keep.

“Gorgeous moments to paint include the couples first kiss, the first dance, or the walk back down the aisle together after the ceremony.”

Mandy holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is one of New Zealand’s very few live event painters. Therefore, she travels to venues across the country to paint couples on the happiest day of their lives.

Above: Examples of Mandy’s paintings. Mandy says some of the Indian weddings she has painted have been amazing

So how did Mandy get the idea?

“I got the idea of live wedding painting from TikTok, watching a number of American artists and their process. I also film the weddings I paint to show the process and finished product! My TikTok is @mandyboydartist which also shows my other studio work and commissions. I can create commissions from photographs and can send work worldwide.”

Are there any similarities between playing bowls and wedding painting?

“It’s hard to draw similarities between bowls and painting, but I guess patience would be a big part of both. Also when painting at weddings, I am performing and although I don’t really get nervous for bowls anymore, I certainly did when I attended my first few live paintings. I have done quite a range of weddings now, also a number of Indian weddings which have been amazing.”

What’s the best part of Mandy’s job?

“Definitely the excitement I see in the clients when they can see how the work is progressing. It’s pretty awesome to receive that reaction and being a part of such an important day for the couple is special.”

But Mandy says she loves bowls just as much as I ever .

“I am a member of an amazing club called Elmwood Park. The club and my team mates are so supportive. I will often fly from a wedding to start bowls the next day and they have no problem with me burning the candle at both ends at times and we are doing really well as a whole club which is awesome. Bowls fits in with my painting well; painting is my full-time job so I can work it all to suit my calendar and I often take my painting with me on bowls trips to work on while away!”

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Do you know a bowler with a unique job who we can feature in a future issue?

If so, email: ceris.hewlings@keypublishing.com

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