Portrait — Courtney Audain
About
About Courtney Audain
Two horizons meet on one canvas.
Courtney Audain is a self-taught, Trinidad and Tobago-born Austin acrylic painter working in acrylic on canvas across landscape, still life, wildlife, pets, figures and abstract city scenes. His work holds a conversation between a moonlit sea and a wide Texas sky. The Caribbean and Texas become two ways of looking, brought together in paint.
In Adrift, a sailboat sits beneath a moon: an image of island memory, held in the space between water and sky. Farmhouse Under Texas Sky and The Old Truck, New Mexico turn toward the new land — the presence of a building, the shape of a truck, the openness around them. Each painting lets a different horizon speak.
Then the view draws closer. A jug and fruit make a still life of home in between: familiar shapes, a quieter scale, a world within reach. From sea to sky to tabletop, his paintings bring distant horizons into the same intimate conversation.
Before the canvas: a life in rhythm
The two horizons begin with steel pan in Trinidad and continue with bass on Austin stages. Raised in Trinidad, Courtney Audain played steel drums as a child and was in a steel band by age nine. At 13, he joined a professional steel band and became its drummer; in 1974, he toured the US with that band. He arrived in Austin, Texas, in 1981 by way of New York, and played for about five years with Pressure, the Austin reggae and world-beat band.
Audain was Timbuk 3’s bassist from 1991 until the band broke up in 1995, playing bass and steel drums on its 1991 album Big Shot in the Dark. He also played in the Killer Bees, Midnight Angels and Trik Trax, and performed with Ian Moore, Kris McKay, and Charlie and Will Sexton. His solo album Fuze followed in 1998. He ran Coinhead Studios, where he mixed albums for artists including Sara Hickman. Seen alongside this life in rhythm, the color and movement of his paintings offer another conversation between the same two horizons.
As featured in The Austin Chronicle (1999)“The Medium Is the Music” · Margaret Moser · March 4, 1999
About the artist
Who is Courtney Audain?
Courtney Audain is a self-taught, Trinidad-born painter and former Timbuk 3 bassist based in Austin, Texas. His acrylic paintings include landscapes, still life, creatures, figures and abstracts.
Is Courtney Audain self-taught?
Yes. Courtney Audain is a self-taught painter, working in acrylic on canvas.
Where is he based?
Courtney Audain is based in Austin, Texas.
What medium does he paint in?
Courtney Audain paints in acrylic on canvas.
What does he paint?
Courtney Audain paints landscapes, still life, wildlife, pets, figures and abstract city scenes.
Does he take commissions, and how do I inquire?
Courtney Audain is open to painting commissions. Inquire about a commission or an existing painting through his contact form.
Is Courtney Audain the bassist from Timbuk 3?
Yes. Courtney Audain played bass in Timbuk 3 from 1991 to 1995 and is now an acrylic painter based in Austin, Texas.
Did Courtney Audain play steel pan?
Yes. Courtney Audain played steel drums as a child in Trinidad, was in a steel band by age nine, and played bass and steel drums on Timbuk 3’s 1991 album Big Shot in the Dark.
How long has Courtney Audain lived in Austin?
Courtney Audain has lived in Austin, Texas, since 1981, when he arrived by way of New York.