NAME Lloyd Austins

LLOYD AUSTINS – Artist’s statement

www.lloydaustins.co.uk

I paint with a knife, brushes, rags, charcoal and graphite sticks. I slash, stab, gouge, flick, smear, drip, cut the paint, working as fast as possible in order to release the emotional energy that will charge the painting with a raw vitality.

I emphasize the painted mark, rejecting slick, pristine surfaces, searching for a more primitive, untamed energy. I use the graphite to cut back into the paint.

Painting is like a battle. You may start with a plan but once you begin, you are working with your wits, using chance, searching for an opening.

I experiment with the paint, adding oils to make the paint more visceral. I like paint to look like paint.

I reject the easel. I cut canvas straight from the roll and tack it to the wall. This gives a surface that can really be attacked.

When I’m not painting, I work from the masters.

In my painting I attempt to convey a sensation, to get across the brutality of fact, to lock the subject’s energy in paint.

1972                Born Wolverhampton

Education
1991                Studied at Sheffield Hallam University
1993                Lived and worked in Wolverhampton
1997                Lived and worked in Leeds
1998                Lived and worked in London
1999                Studied at Wolverhampton University
2002-present Lives and works Wolverhampton

Group shows

2008                Ten to One. Lichfield Passage Gallery, Wolverhampton

Solo shows