In this episode we interview writer, broadcaster and artist, Lachlan Goudie who recently published his remarkable new book — The Secrets of Painting: The Hidden Art of the Masterpiece from Prehistory to Today (Thames & Hudson 2026). Lachlan Goudie is a writer, broadcaster and artist. His previous book, The Story of Scottish Art (2020) was linked to a TV series of same title which he presented. It’s clear he loves painting and has a huge interest in and knowledge of its history as an art form. The Secrets of Painting is a big fat lavishly illustrated book: in 20 chapters it examines 20 magnificent works and reveals more about painting than you ever thought you wanted to know: but it’s stuff that’s really worth knowing! It’s a masterpiece of research and synthesis. I found reading it revelatory, each painting is opened out, in the context of its time, to reveal what the painter did in raising his or her work to a new level of artistry. It reveals how artists over the centuries have used and adapted innovations in technologies and materials, to create masterpieces that have since inspired awe in millions of people. It’s a fascinating account and I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys art. It is clear that a lot of thought and planning went into the book. It offers an impressively deep view of painting: the painter’s processes and how a painting takes shape — how individual painters pushed themselves to use, manipulate and invent materials to create transcendent works. It engenders a profound sense of the painter’s craft and knowledge. In this episode, Lachlan Goudie kindly agreed to talk to us about what motivated him to write the book and how he went about making his selection. He also explains the particular innovations and qualities of some of the paintings he chose, and talks about the artists behind the masterpieces, and how their lives and times influenced their works. To begin the interview, I wondered if his own experience of art school, which was less than satisfactory, had anything to do with his decision to write it. I then asked Lachlan how he chose the works from the thousands of possible examples — how personal were his choices for example — as there is an interesting range of both familiar and less familiar choices. He describes his process, drawing on research from numerous sources, of making the final selection. I wanted to know why he started in prehistory, with the cave paintings in Chauvet, France, which are not part of a continuous artistic tradition, as such. However he points out that they are impressive evidence of the creativity and skill of pre-historic artists — something he is particularly keen to highlight. The book presents a chronological picture of how advances in available materials, and the innovations and inventions of individual artists changed the course of art history. Each painting represents a moment of change or development in the technology available to an artist, and the way an artist pushes the boundaries of what was previously thought possible. It also illustrates other shifts in the history of painting. Most of the paintings that Lachlan selected are from the European tradition, but he chose a small sample from elsewhere in the world over the period of time the book covers: one each from Egypt, China, India, Japan and Aboriginal Australia. He explains that he wanted to demonstrate that there are numerous traditions of artistic creation which have produced stunning masterpieces across the world and that Europe is not alone in the inventiveness, skill and talent of its artists. This helps contextualize Europe in a global context without claiming to fully represent other art traditions. I selected several paintings from the book and ask Lachlan how each represented a moment of change and development in painting. You can examine the images below while listening to Lachlan’s explanation of them. Giotto’s, The Dream of Joachim, part of the stunning sequence in Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, 1303-5, shows Giotto taking Renaissance fresco painting to new heights. Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, (at The National Gallery, London) exemplifies how oil paint provided a way of reaching a high degree of precision, depth and perfection in portrait painting. In Judith Beheading Holofernes c1612-13, Artemisia Gentileschi (in Palazzo Barbarini, Rome, Italy) drew on her personal experience as a woman in a ruthless and violent man’s world, and used contemporary innovations pioneered by Caravaggio create paintings of intense personal drama. We then skipped a few centuries. Although art tradition builds on previous achievements in skill, technique and style, modern art, especially since the early 20th century, seems less a continuity and more a rupture point, transforming ideas about what it means to represent the world visually. Pablo Picasso’s Still Life with Chair Caning (1912) was inspired by the innovations of Picasso’s fellow artists, George Braque, and is a prime example of this shift. After that, painters took new directions, continuing to experiment with new materials that 20th century innovations made available. Blast Off (US 1970) by Alma Thomas exemplifies the way acrylic paint gave artists access to a vibrant colour palette while expressing a sense of excitement and optimism in America in the 1960s and 70s. Such innovations also made it possible to bring ancient traditions into the modern world, such as Warlugulong, by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri (1976). Finally we look at the thorny issue of what artificial intelligence makes possible in painting; Rafik Anadol’s Unsupervised: Machine Hallucinations (2022) and Lachlan explains why this could be described as painting. Many thanks to Lachlan for participating in this interview. I certainly learned a lot, and enjoyed it, and I hope you do too. (With thanks to Kate Burville to Thames&Hudson for facilitating this interview and helping to provide images for this page). Get full access to Arts First at artsfirst.substack.com/subscribe
