The torn, cut and folded edge are used together with a range of other materials in Piece with Violet Space. A labyrinth of ‘walls’ and entrances give way to a deep mysterious void. Three small, almost insignificant, linear motifs, are just apparent across the centre. The use of materials give this piece a strong suggestion of geological structure, ‘body’ and object-hood. Piece with Top Right Pink also started as part of a larger piece. The MDF provided a firm resistant surface to work on. I could still shape it, which I couldn’t do if it were a stretched canvas, but it was more resistant to cutting and layering than paper. On the other hand it could be battened on the back afterwards and it wouldn’t need to be framed, therefore increasing the sense of object-hood. The use of acrylics meant that layers could be built up quickly - this is especially apparent in the central crimson field of colour. I was thinking about Persian miniatures again and also the function of the frame in religious icons I had seen in the Ashmolean Museum, which made them very intimate and compact. This piece sits in the same room in my home as Painting with Void and White Forms and similarly it seems to resonate with Tavener’s music. After experiencing the piece while listening to ‘The Protecting Veil’ I read the accompanying notes, only to find that he was trying to use musical notes as a paintbrush is used to paint icons. A semi-figurative form enters at bottom left; it is separated from the form at top right by a gulf and upper horizontal boundary. There is a movement however that connects with the higher level; the gap in it seems to have some relationship with the strange, rather solid white form, perched precariously on the stepped left hand edge. Again, this narrative is simply a way of seeing the piece after the event. At the time, as with any of these pieces, I was simply improvising, shaping space, colour and form, and playing with materials and proportions in an intuitive way, until a pertinent set of relationships appeared. The image is in a sense found. The two forms in the corners arose out of scraps of newspaper. It is a question of using whatever is available, changing it or disposing of it if it is of no use, or using it in a purposeful way where that is possible. Some things may just fall into place, but for the work as a whole, adjustment and transformation is necessary.