Andrew Kinmont’s paintings aren’t about showing a scene or telling a story in the usual way. Instead, they capture the energy and feeling of the world as it is experienced. His work draws on small details from reality—a line of trees, the movement of water, the balance of shapes in a landscape—and transforms them into something more universal and felt.
Like James McNeill Whistler, Kinmont is drawn to the beauty of colour and form rather than the conventions of subject matter. For him, as for Whistler, what matters most is not the factual detail of a scene, but the atmosphere it creates and the emotional response it evokes. Similarly, the painter Arthur Melville’s ability to strip away detail in favour of light, movement, and mood resonates deeply with Kinmont’s own approach. His paintings aim for this same kind of abstraction—where suggestion and rhythm take precedence over description.
Kinmont’s work is informed by the idea of embodied cognition: the understanding that we don’t just see art, we experience it through our bodies and emotions. When we look at a painting, our minds instinctively place us within it. Movement, balance, and energy in the work can awaken corresponding sensations in the viewer—calm, tension, flow, or stillness—so the painting is felt as much as it is seen.
The paintings feel alive because they are built from contrasts: heavy areas against light ones, bold strokes beside fine lines, calm next to tension. These relationships create a quiet spark, like the moment of surprise when you encounter a perfect reflection on the surface of a still lake. Rather than copying nature, the work echoes its rhythm and vitality.
For Kinmont, painting isn’t about explanation or narrative. It’s about creating balance, movement, and harmony so the work itself breathes. A painting is finished when all its parts come together like the organs of a body—suddenly it feels whole, complete, and alive.
When viewing his paintings, there’s no need to analyse or “figure them out.” They are meant to be felt first. They may recall the fleetingness of light, the sensation of being in a place, or the quiet energy of the natural world without depicting it directly. In this way, Kinmont’s work invites the viewer into an embodied experience—one that reaches beyond what is seen to the deeper essence of how it feels to be present in the world.
Andrew Kinmont 