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Malcolm Arbuthnot made small beautiful things from observed objects. Almost all of his beginnings (sketches) were of things found anywhere.
I often saw him working in his studio making minor adjustments to a line or shape; searching for the form that linked the elements of his drawing; adjusting emphases or colours, simplifying to an inevitable end. The painting which then followed had been planned out of every unrelated space, shape, surface and colour; relationships of hard and soft edges had been calculated.
I cannot recall any purely invented work nor any emotional response to his subjects, just a fixed determination to find an answer to the problems of making a work of integrity. Now and again the answers, however considered, did not work. He knew it but kept the pieces (perhaps inspiration would come) for reference: perhaps he should have destroyed some of this cache before he died.
He was a very large man and big with it. He could be overbearing in the sureness of his own beliefs. The delicacy of his work in the hands of so large a body sometimes seemed unlikely. However to me he was most generous with helpful criticism of my own work. I learned a great deal from him.
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- a personal appreciation written by Fred Sands RI. Originally published by the Jersey Heritage Trust in their Jersey Artists series.