Lloyd Austins

This is a charcoal drawing of part of the Goodyear factory in Wolverhampton.

I’ve added a new painting, a self-portrait

My show opens today. It runs until the 9th of May. It’s at the Art in a window gallery, Birmingham Central Library (Congrieve Passage), just off Chamberlain Square.

I’ve entered this year’s BP Portrait Award. I took my self-portrait down to London on the train and braved the gale force winds, the painting acting like a sail, I was blown along to the drop off point.

There seems to be a preference for photorealism in this award. That’s why I’ve entered my painting as it’s about as far away as you can get from that style.

I’ve entered this year’s John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize. I submitted my painting of St. Paul’s Square, Birmingham online this morning.

This year’s jury includes Jake and Dinos Chapman, ‘enfants terribles of Britart’. I really like Jake and Dinos, I wonder what they’ll make of my work?

Entrants from the last competition said

“It is the premier painting competition in the UK”

“Having been selected has already opened doors for me”

“Highly regarded forum for emerging and established artists”

“Most of the contemporary British artists I admire have been in a John Moores exhibition”

“Widely regarded as the best showcase for British contemporary painting”

Should be interesting.

“Work, intoxication, brain racking, chewing, eating, gorging, rooting up, rapturous birthpangs, jabbing of the brush, preferably right through the canvas, trampling on paint tubes.”

Max Pechstein sums it up. This pretty much describes how I paint. I use a knife rather than a brush though, which jabs easier through the canvas for anyone new to jabbing.