Q & A with Lloyd Durling

1) Have you always liked your name Lloyd? Do you have any favourite Lloyds such as Lloyd Cole?
Lloyd: "Yes I'm very happy with my name. I like that it is associated in English mostly as a surname, and in welsh it's a christian name which means grey-haired or sacred. Lloyd Bridges was a very good actor."

2) Do you agree with this statement: "Show me a boy who was happy at school and I will show you a liar, a cheat or a bully".
"I was very happy at school.....some of the nicest moments of my childhood. little responsibility. I'd be a terrible bully."

3) What were the most positive aspects of your art education?
"Art education was a tough time for me. art excited me but i found it troublesome too. by the time I was 21 I was relieved to be out of education but, ready to move to London to be an artist."

4) Where are you based now? Where have you been travelling?
"I moved to London in 2001, then I went to Berlin for a couple of years. I am now based back in London. I have a strong passion for travelling.... all forms. at the moment I love walking and have just finished a solo walk coast to coast from Padstow to Fowey in Cornwall."

5) Which artists were an inspiration to you in your youth?
"Picasso and Bosch were of particular interest. I loved the films of Claude Chabrol with their dark overtones."

6) Do you have any favourite art books?
"I like the book 'On Drawing', By John Berger. He makes some of the finest insights into the very nature of markmaking."

7) What is your idea of beauty in nature?
"Stephane Audran."
8) What are you working on at the moment?
"I have just had a show at Chapter in Cardiff of new works. I am working on a series of new semi-abstract drawings partially derived from carnivorous plants."

9) Which of your artworks are you most proud of?
"The works that I completed in Berlin between 2008-2009. I had a lot of isolation."

10) What song would you like played at your funeral?
"'There's a place in Hell for me and my friends', by Morrissey."

11) To what extent are you a bad man?
"Me and a friend set some woods partially on fire when we were 14 years old."

12) Which gives you the most happiness - swimming or dancing?
"When I get wet I hate drying myself..... and I'm quite inhibited when it comes to dancing. but i would go for dancing."

13) Why do you make art?
"Because of Giotto."