White, Pink and Scarlet: July 1983

No longer restricted by the compositional restraints of the 1970s, the present work has floating amoeba- and chromosome-like forms, its poised opposition of rounded shapes like billowing Chinese lanterns. Alan Gouk (Patrick Heron, Barbican Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, London, 1985, p. 22), describes this work, 'permanent rose tube-squeezings zip into the resilient tambourine-taut white priming in a sort of football lacing, while a sonorous rose magenta surrounds it, a flurry of scarlet and a circled orange, to form a stark conspiracy'.