I paint abstract ‘action’ paintings and I have noticed that when I am working in this way I undergo a personality change. It does not happen if I paint a straightforward picture with a recognisable subject. The picture fills my mind with intelligent control and organisation. I am fully occupied with manipulating the paint to reproduce the shape, colour, light and shade of the chosen subject. Sometimes a little freedom will creep in to give the image a less realistic appearance. I never try to slavishly reproduce exactly what I see. I soften the light and blur the edges to give the image a personal touch but, on the whole, painting straightforward pictures with a recognisable subject is an undertaking fully controlled by my intelligence. Abstract ‘action’ painting is a different thing altogether. You don’t want intelligence to have any part of what you are doing because if you allow it to take control you know you will lose the very freedom you want to discover. A freedom that will let a deeper part of your mind take over and manipulate what you are doing. You want a subconscious level of perception to rise above intelligent control so that it will guide your hand to paint forms beyond intelligent recognition. For me an abstract ‘action’ painting is successful when my intelligence has been pushed aside whist I paint and when I stop painting to look at what I have done I find I cannot recognise anything in the work. Its as if someone else has been painting whilst I have been away. I think am like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. My room where I paint is his laboratory. The smell of the oil paint and the linseed and turpentine are the elixir that transforms me into an animal beyond intelligent control. I find it a bit scary sometimes and I have to stop and go back to painting a straightforward picture with a recognisable subject to bring me back to reality. What worries me most is that Hyde is getting stronger. Even the straightforward paintings are beginning to show his animal presence. The pictures’ are becoming more and more erratic as the brush that should be controlled by my intelligence is being pushed more and more by this animal I have unleashed from the depth of my mind.