Ryan Arnott's earliest paintings are bold and colorful, with familiar yet personal imagery, reflecting the influence of Pop Art. For example, Eavestrough Painting relates to him ‘thinking about art’ while he worked as a house-painter. Spaghetti Painting is made from oil paint squeezed from the tube with a cone on it. Here the artist/chef is saying that art can be nourishing and fulfilling. And Arnott makes his spaghetti picture using paint in a sculptural way. Even more three-dimensional is the Hat/Cake Painting, which is freed from the wall. Not surprisingly, for a number of years, Arnott stopped painting to focus on making sculptures.
He returned to painting in the mid-1990s with three series of tree artworks - the YES paintings, the Leaf Trees, and the Heart Trees. In these pictures Arnott creates imaginative trees as multi-faceted symbols for love, growth and the spiritual life.
Recent paintings continue his use of familiar images as charged visual metaphors. Is the Sparkling Glass empty or full? Why are the materials used to create the painting of IRONY Soap labeled? Lastly, in his Purple Irises picture, Arnott had a photograph of his sculpture taken, which he then painted on. This is a hybrid artwork about a hybrid object. Here Arnott seems to invite us to think about artifice and beauty, and the importance of a creative life.