James Lloyd

1905-1974

James Lloyd was born into a farming family in Cheshire England in 1905. A remarkable man of great warmth, James Lloyd had an acute sense of observation.  Before he became famous as a painter, he earned his living at a variety of jobs, such as a builder’s laborer, a lamp lighter, a stoker, a bus conductor, a policeman, and lastly, a farm laborer.  He also distinguished himself during World War II as a member of the Coldstream Guards. His pointillist painting style developed from his desire to copy reproductions of works by great English artists such as Constable and Turner.  While carefully studying color illustrations of these works in various books and journals, he discovered that the reproductions consisted of thousands of tiny dots, and he set about painstakingly copying this photographic process, dot by dot, using old paintbrushes with just a few hairs each.  His subject matter was wide-ranging and included erotic scenes, farm animals, and local events.  To amuse his children, he also painted pop singers and film stars. Lloyd once remarked that he found it difficult to paint unless his wife, Nancy, and his 9 children were all at home around him making noise. He was obsessive about his paintings, spending many hours on each one.  In the mid-1960s, his reputation and fame spread and his paintings were featured in many important collections. - from Self-taught and Outsider Art by the Anthony Petullo Collection