The power of blackness and bars featured in the first piece displayed in this catalogue: Light through Bars. Here, in Not All Is Well – Black on Purple, I return to this idea of the foreboding menace of being constrained behind bars in darkness. A lack of freedom may come from external causes or from within. We can all feel trapped, even when we have notional freedom.

Essentially, I am still playing with shapes and colour in this piece. The black bars are layered in the shape of a steep pyramid. Purple light still works its magic but it is under threat from the Tower of Babel rising up in front. And every picture needs an edging to provide the frame to seal the design.

The stitching patterns just emerged in my free-style working. They are suggestive to me of the mass of humanity.

My Not All Is Well – Black on Purple piece
measures 32.5” x 34.5”.