Barbara Taylor Roy

1918 - 2014

Born on a farm in Fruita, Colorado, on October 6, 1918, Barbara Taylor Roy, had a love of the natural world. She spent much of her life as an accomplished Plein Air and portrait painter. She was a scholarship student at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles and studied with the famed western watercolorist, Milford Zornes from Pomona, CA, and a favored student of famed Russian artist Sergei Bongart from Nicolai Fechin's studio in Santa Monica.
Barbara taught painting at San Diego Community College and at the La Jolla Recreation Center and did decades of teaching seminars in England and Europe. She was an active member of the La Jolla Art Association, acting as president of the organization from 1982-1984, and her over 50 years of prolific portraiture, local land and seascapes are in many homes and establishments in San Diego. Working alongside her photographer husband, Maurice Roy Sr., Barbara hand painted photographs with an eye for color. An historic 1918 panorama photograph of La Jolla from Scripps Institution was hand painted by Barbara and can be acquired locally today. She was an avid gardener.
Barbara died peacefully in her sleep on November 25, 2014, at the age of 96. Her death was preceded by her husband, Maurice Rene Roy Sr., in 1971. She leaves behind daughter, Shirley Roy; sons, Rob Roy of San Diego and Maurice R. Roy Jr., of La Jolla; as well as two grandsons, Michael Merhar of Minnesota and Maurice Taylor Roy of Brooklyn, NY.
There will be no services and the family asks that donations be made to support local artists in Barbara's name.