Painter and draughtsman, especially of land and townscapes, born in Bolton, Lancashire. Austin’s miner father, William, emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, in 1912, where he worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway, preparing a home for his wife Ellen and two small sons. When William was killed at Passchendaele in 1917 just after the birth of a third child, Austin, then nine years old, became the man of the family. Although he had to find a job at 14 to earn money, his enthusiasm for art led him to evening classes at the Winnipeg School of Art, studying with Lemoine Fitzgerald. He illustrated mail-order catalogues for the firm Brigdens, where he met Gordon Smith and Bob Bruce, both to become notable Canadian artists. Taylor served as a sapper in World War II; 167 pictures, including a self-portrait, were donated to The Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.
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After winning top award in an Army Art Competition in 1945, at the age of 37 he joined the Art Students’ League in New York, where he was taught by Morris Kantor, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Vaclav Vitacil. Taylor settled in England in 1948 and married Winifred Pluckrose, a teacher and artist. He participated in group exhibitions at St George’s Gallery, 1949; Redfern Gallery, 1950; Leicester Galleries, Artists of Fame and Promise, 1951–7; Beaux Arts Gallery, 1952–3; and Ware Gallery, 1956. He began regular visits to Paris, making life drawings at La Grande Chaumière, also studying in the British Museum print room. Feeling latterly that much of modern work was “gimmicky and dead-end,” he chose not to exhibit. Between 1973–80 he sold some paintings at Marlborough-Godard Gallery, Montreal, and won second prize for a picture of the Underground in the 1980 Greater London Council Spirit of London art competition. He was drawing at a chateau on the Loire on the last day of his life. Taylor was prolific and Duncan Campbell Fine Art sold his work extensively at exhibitions in 2002–3–4.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
