It is in some ways fortuitous that Saied Dai became a painter as his career might have been quite different. Although he began his training as an art student in Bournemouth, he considered an alternative career in medicine, obtaining a place at two London medical schools. In the end he chose art school. Listening to Saied it becomes clear that there are many parallels between these professions, as he later discovered when he went to the Royal Academy. Saied values the breadth of education he received in what turned out to be seven years of formal artistic study and feels the importance of giving something back through teaching. He was privileged to come into contact with artists of real distinction, unique personalities with formed creative minds. At the Royal Academy they still had professors of Anatomy, chemistry and perspective. These diverse and demanding disciplines, all grounded in drawing, left an indelible mark on him.

‘Art for me consists of both sound and soundlessness. The better the art the more it will be full of soundlessness. The better the art the more it simply leads you into silence. That is the criterion for authentic art-that it leads you into silence.'