Like the great masters of this tradition, Poussin, David, Ingres and Picasso, Davies is a skilful exponent of pictorial theatre. In fact, he describes his practice as of someone who writes the play, directs the actors, designs and makes the props and lights the stage, a highly unusual definition of painting but entirely appropriate as Davies is an unusual painter. He believes that mystery can be a potent force in a painted image, that the sense of painting should emerge slowly. He believes that paintings should have undercurrents as well as surface currents. He believes in ambiguity and in the tension generated by opposites.
