Artist works on edge as he ‘can’t really draw’

GRAHAM Lloyd would not describe himself as an artist, having spent his career working with computers.

However, the Henley resident tried making “hard edge” art at school and it stuck.

Graham, 71, says: “I don’t think I’m in any way a conventional artist.

“When I was at school, I was very much a maths, physics and chemistry person, but we were encouraged to do something on the side. There was a very nice, inspiring and professional art teacher we had there and he inspired me to do some art.

“I said, ‘I can’t draw, I can’t do anything like that’ and he said, ‘Well, you can do hard edge, can’t you?’ and I said, ‘Probably not’.

“He got me doing a hard edge, and then I won a senior painting prize at school with it. I never saw myself as an artist at all, I went to Imperial College, I did maths, physics and chemistry and I’ve been working in computing ever since, but ever since school I’ve also thought, ‘Yeah, I can do this art bit’.

“It’s been a pastime all my life, in fits and starts. Usually, when I move to a new house, I start doing some more painting.”

Hard edge is a form of abstract art whose exponents have included Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), where clean lines are used to juxtapose colours.

“I’m not a natural artist, unlike my two daughters, who can draw anything beautifully. I can’t really draw, I’m not very good at perspective and things but actually what I could do was look at colours and composition,” says Graham.

“For all my paintings, I use masking tape to do the lines and they’re all acrylic. I used to do the paintings on very large bits of hardboard and so I have quite a few very big paintings. Then I started buying box canvases, which are what I paint on now, which are really good.”

Graham applies his mathematical skills to design many of the artworks.

“The planning is the fun bit, when I actually think of ideas and think, ‘Well, yes, I could do that’,” he says.

“Quite a lot of it is repainting and getting it right. Previously, it was all straight lines and then I sort of developed into using curved lines and I tried to constrain myself to do the pictures that I liked but using hard edge.

“If you do hard edge, the very important bit of it is making sure the colours all go with each other and so that’s what I do.”

Three years ago, Graham’s painting Roundabout Sunset won the Pro Arte Award at the National Acrylic Painters’ Association summer exhibition, held at the Oxmarket Centre of Arts in Chichester, West Sussex.

The following year, it won a Talent Prize Award at the Art Show International Abstract Juried Art Competition.

“Roundabout Sunset sort of rotates around, that is a mathematical thing and I got the original lines across and then I rotated it by so much and rotated a bit more and repeated that. So that’s all very precise and mathematical but it’s not enough on its own, of course, all the colours have to go.”

Graham lives in Harcourt Close with his wife of 34 years, Sue. They bought their house six months ago and are renovating it.

The couple have two daughters, Hayley, 32, who lives in the Gold Coast in Australia, and Sophie, 28, who lives in Reading. He says: “Four years ago, we sold our house and then moved up to Nottingham way, but we all missed our friends, so we’ve just moved back.

“We went during covid, I was working from home and we were thinking of downsizing and thought, ‘Ooh, let’s move somewhere really nice’, which we did, and then we missed all our friends down here.

“I do a lot of rowing, I’m a member of Upper Thames Rowing Club, so I have lots of rowing friends. My wife Sue is a pilates instructor and so she had lots of ex-clients down here and they wanted her to come back and do classes. So we’re really happy to be back.

“I’m active in Upper Thames, I raced in the regatta quite a few times, though not at top level.

“My art is a different part of me all together. I get a good idea and I think I’m getting better at it as well.

“I’ve got lots of big paintings and I haven’t really sold any because I’ve never really wanted to sell any, but they will be for sale and so it will be sad to see some of them go!”

• An art exhibition featuring the works of Graham Lloyd is at the Old Fire Station Gallery in Upper Market Place, Henley, from Thursday, May 23 to Tuesday, May 28, open from 10am to 5pm daily. For more information, visit www.grahamlloyd.art