`When Antony Bream attended the Royal Academy Schools in the 1960s, most of his contemporaries were bicycling over paint-smeared canvasses in a desperate attempt to emulate their heroes, the American Abstract Expressionists.

Bream, by contrast set out on a different course. His aim was to study the giants of the early 20th century, notably John Singer Sargent, Orpen and Brangwyn. And from their example to leap further back to the masters of the Baroque.

This taught him that naturalism in art is always artificial. And that a mastery of drawing, colour and tone is essential to the discipline of perceptual painting. But, above all, he learnt that to convey true spontaneity requires total obeisance to “disegno”, the Italian word meaning the subordination of technique and material to the visual idea.

Thus is Bream sustained in his obsession with time-honoured methods and authentic materials. This is revealed in his “premier coup” technique, an ability to secure a direct interpretation of the image onto the canvas without labouring over meretricious effects. It goes without saying that camera plays not part in this process. But true artists are more than mere mechanics. Whatever disciplines might inform a painter’s view-point, it is, after all, creative gifts that matter.

In Bream’s case, his paintings have a pure, uncluttered quality revealing the assurance of a mature talent. And, as such, they have a durability capable of outlasting the efforts of his flashier contemporaries.’ James Knox The Art Newspaper.