DEEP IN THE WOODS Michael Carr Art Dealer

Sydney Morning Herald October 4, 2003

By Lenny Ann Low.

It's difficult to believe Tony Lloyd's 16 paintings are not photographs. Not only are they exquisitely photorealist, they smack of cinema stills, edited from an obscure, and now classic, 1960s film noir movie. Lloyd found the genesis for his series of oil on canvas works by strapping a video camera to his car bonnet and driving vast distances at night. His journeying reveals a disturbing, sometimes menacing, Australian landscape pregnant with suspense. In the work Deep in the Woods a wide, ceaseless road is overshadowed by dark forbidding trees. Thick black branches hug the sky like a Rorschach ink blot. The Beckoning Interval suggests hope - the end of a journey through the night - while A Moment of Clarity, featuring a flash of car headlight or a stretch of lit road in inky darkness, is charged with isolation. Lloyd's skill with paint (he uses a cotton bud to enhance the soft, impenetrable tone of his oils) and mood presents a haunting and compelling series. 124a Queen Street, Woollahra, 9327 3011, Tuesday to Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, until October 11.