I first saw Michael Broughton’s paintings in a small gallery in St. Ives. I had heard of the work of this young and little-known painter from a couple of distinguished painters so in that sense there was no surprise. But what I encountered were paintings of a beautiful simplicity and modesty in the choice of subject, painted with a restrained yet luminous palette and rich in the actual stuff of paint; sensual yet risky they declared themselves as being“un-fashionably” sympathetic to the broader tradition of European expressionism but having the quality and intensity of a very personal vision.