The drawings in the collection form part of a series completed over three years when the artist was looking to feed back some of the content of his paintings into smaller works on paper, with the aim of working through a large number of forms and variations quickly. He described the working method: ‘The drawings usually started from a linear arrangement of interlocking tubes and conduits, sometimes sketches of half-made objects in the studio, and tracings from distorted photographs or a William Morris floral design. The task was then to embed and substantiate the forms within a field of ‘bubbles’, worked over in many layers (and sometimes varying colours and materials), developed until there seemed to be sufficient density, an ‘atmospheric pressure’ of light-reflecting beads, capable of holding all elements in place.’

Drawing Distinctions Twentieth-Century Drawings and Watercolours from the British Council Collection, The British Council 1996