There are few people of whom one can say that with any level of certainty. It is also a distinction that is widely disregarded in the contemporary art world, large sections of which tend to regard painting as a black box, a blanket category of activity about which such qualitative judgments are irrelevant. It is as if a painting is purely the sum of its content and no other considerations apply. Yet to say that he is a brilliant painter does mean something in itself.