How seldom does one come across a work of art which surprises or puzzles? Even novelty, and a great many recent innovations of the technological type today are merely novel, has become an accepted feature of what one expects - and this is not surprising or amazing. The Avant-garde is predictable - it is boring precisely because its main preoccupation is at the level of means, with little or no concern for content - they tend to last as long as it takes to adjust to the new media. Ingenuity has replaced empathy. If immediately one understands fully, then soon one will be bored. To be deliberately obscure is senseless - yet to treat art, especially visual arts, as a means of communicating information even when that information is about the nature and possibility of vision itself - or of technology, and its application to visual art, is equally futile. Direct experience of painting can carry qualities which are not connected to memory or history, yet which affect the observer in such a way that the emotional and spiritual content of the work are instantly 'understood'- immediately apprehended. To further the experience one may attempt analysis, but a better alternative may be merely to continue the original experience - to keep on keeping on - to remain open and ready to receive and savour without intellectual dissection.