Depth of Field

Shepparton Art Gallery, Monash University Museum of Art Melbourne 2003

by Louise Tegart

For Tony Lloyd film and photography have always been an inspiration and he explores a cinematic reality through the use of a video camera, projector and canvas. His nocturnal landscapes use a close range cinematic technique that keeps compositional elements strong and emphasises depth. To generate images Lloyd attaches a video camera to his car and drives around the countryside taking hours of footage. Using Photoshop he then manipulates stills from the video and paints from these images.

The photographic quality of his work emerges in the use of light and shadow, important factors that cannot be neglected in creating a photograph. In Lloyd’s paintings light and darkness vie for precedence while paradoxically setting the stage for each other. To achieve the slick photographic surface Lloyd conceals the trace of the hand using a technique which eliminates brushstrokes.

In the series of four works, Flight, Lost, Limbo and Myriad, Lloyd’s handling of colour and detail, the flatness and opacity of the image, an intentional unemotional handling of the subject and the framing of works in black shadow boxes further indicate photographic tendencies. In Flight, Lloyd had faithfully painted lens flare, created because video cannot expose al contrast equally. Through the use of close-ups and a grid format, storyboard and narrative possibilities are evoked, however the subject of the imaginary film is vague and intangible as we are not given sufficient information to figure out how the four images relate to each other. Are we watching a movie half asleep or are we driving through a landscape in a dream?

© Louise Tegart 2002