The Quarrel amongst the Sunflowers

The artist writes in reference to the present work, 'You may or may not know that I was an Official War Artist during the latter part of World War II. This had a curious effect on me in that I was able to paint but the situation presented by life aboard an aircraft carrier was full of stress and a kind of devouring excitement. I was very young (mid 20s) and inexperienced, and although I felt myself responding to certain aspects of a menacing world it did have a draining effect on me - I felt brittle. The adjustment to a kind of normal life was difficult for everybody. It created the need for some continuity during radical change and my answer was to substitute a private war for the public one. One of the first paintings I did was The Quarrel - it is a return to a violent incident in my childhood involving my father and one of his mistresses' (private correspondence, 12th December 1987).