After studying Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art, Arnold completed a residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. His work has since earned recognition, including the Steven Campbell Trust’s Hunt Medal in 2015, RSA Carnegie Scholarship for Painting 2016, the Royal Award for Modern Painting (Koninklijke Prijs voor Vrije Schilderkunst) in 2019, and the Buning Brongers Prijs in 2020. He is represented by Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam.

Arnold’s painting practice is anchored in the observation of his immediate, everyday surroundings. The paintings are executed intuitively with no strict plan. Mistake, accident and doubt are fundamental aspects to their development, with Arnold prizing painterly discovery as the engine of each work.

The paintings labour under their own acute awareness of other possibilities, with entire compositions often questioned and reworked. Sequences of stymied solutions and doubtful frustrations result in a highly physical surface rendering the paintings both palimpsests and records of their own making.