Dion Salvador Lloyd paints skyscapes which are, by turns, warm and engaging, mean and foreboding. They betray his admiration for the likes of Turner and Dali. But he is truly in his element when surrounded by nature, which is evident from his
paintings that reflect his fascination with the sky. They are not demanding or abrasive in any way, but instead have a feeling of infinity about them. His approach is more suggestive than descriptive, allowing the viewer to bring their own
interpretation to each piece.
Drawing on a wide array of influences, most significantly music, the weather and the natural world, Dion Salvador Lloyd’s works invite you into a space that is at once familiar and yet, it is
also an uncanny place that we have never visited before. Everything recognisable has been removed, leaving only the colour, trace and mood of the sky and landscape.
Working in oils, Lloyd creates abstractions of both mark making
and texture that simply beckon you in, once there it is for you the viewer to find and decide on what is land, sea and sky. There is no truth of the image here, only a choice, on your part as to what it is you want to see within the space he has
created.
A seeker of light and of the ultimate, driven by a desire to leave something beautiful behind, Lloyd captures the essence of our world and reveals it to us in a way that is truly sublime. The larger scale works tumble you into their
world and quite literally open up your mind to fly within them, taking your own unique journey through the space. The smaller works invite you into quieter more intimate worlds of perception.
Lloyd works the canvas or board over
and over, building up the texture and depth, leaving certain parts visible, covering over others, building up the layers of paint and pigment to create the required atmosphere. Working each canvas for days if not weeks at a time, not finishing a
piece until he intuitively knows it is done.
There are no accidents here, if there are, Lloyd only leaves them if he feels they bring something new to the piece. He has an unending respect for the medium itself, squirting the oils, making
them move, willing them into life on the surface of the canvas, the marks working some days, stubbornly refusing to move the next.
The textures and brush strokes within each piece are as much a part of the image and experience of them as the
colours and shapes themselves. These dreamscapes leave you breathless at the breadth of their horizon and it is this line, nearly always there in his works that gives the viewer their only clue with which to interpret the piece.
Lloyd is
endlessly fascinated by the individual interpretations of his works and delights in challenging the viewer ever further, pushing them to reinterpret the natural world in a more visceral and imaginative way.
This is not only the world we see,
it is also the world we feel. Lloyd’s work makes this reality explicit in the most beautiful ways.
Petra Creffield 2008
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