Reid says that he paints from rather than on. His subject since the 1950s has included the figure. A transformative eros of man and/or woman combined with landscape came later but that is what he paints from. He says his arm knows what to paint more than his head does. He states in his memoir that he wants his work to look “unlaboured, clear, confident, controlled,”[2] and tries always for urgency and fluidity in the execution.