What do you see? How do you feel?

March 2026

Two people stand in front of the same painting.
Obviously, what they actually see is exactly the same.

But how they feel is probably very different.

So if 100 people look at one of my paintings, will there be 100 different reactions?

Maybe not – I have watched people wander through exhibitions of my work, and indeed I have posted a lot of images online, and it is clear in both situations that there is a consistency about those which gain no reactions at all. There is less consistency over which are well-received.

I have tended to take the view that the ‘blurb’ – the words I put out there with a painting – should not affect viewers’ reactions to the painting, but I am learning that actually those words are very important.
What I paint is an act of self-expression. I rarely attempt to transpose the scene in front of me directly onto the canvas like a photo, there are always choices to be made over composition, style, colours, light, brushwork etc,  and so whatever is the final outcome - is mine.
SO – the ‘blurb’ should provide pointers to the viewer – what are you looking at / how should you judge it?

Without diving into psychoanalysis or arty mumbo-jumbo, it is obvious that, as with handwriting, something about the artist will be conveyed in the artwork.
Living in Wales, I know I am unusual in that I do not like Kyffin Williams’ paintings. There. I’ve said it. They are dark and moody, reflecting his own mental torments. Similarly, the 1950’s existentialists, Bacon, Freud et al, I find much too gruesome.
I look through galleries of photos of my paintings. Bright and colourful, lots of movement. I enjoy walking in the hills.
I suppose I fit into categories too – I am a ‘Boomer’, a child of the 1960s, I remember the ‘summer of love’, the Isle of Wight festival, flower-power, but I don’t believe that these can possibly define my art.