‘Nude with apocalyptic curves’, 1957. Oil on canvas, 81 x 61 cm.

This painting was executed at art school in Newcastle upon Tyne in a life room where we drew and painted from models. After a while, I reacted
against objective drawing – there seemed no point in accurate,
illusionistic depictions because photography could supply them so much
more efficiently. Dispassionate drawings of naked bodies also ignored
their sensual/erotic character. I began to use nature as a
starting point for distortion and experimentation. My drawings and
paintings of the female nude developed sweeping curves that Professor Lawrence Gowing once characterised as ‘apocalyptic’ (I had to look up the word’s meaning
in a dictionary). Permission to exaggerate or even alter observed
colours I derived from the art of Van Gogh and Les Fauves.