This work is based on a shadow I saw on the steps of a local council flat building. In addition to the shadow, I was interested in how the repetition of the windows in the building behind corresponded with the repetition of the steps, which gives the work a kind of rhythm. I wanted to keep a certain flatness to the image, so that the shapes are seen in an almost abstract way, and hit the viewer first, in the same way that the experience of strong light can feel.
As to how my work relates to the theme of Young Masters, my work is very connected to work from the past, in my use of drawings and many colour sketches, which I make before starting a painting. I use elements of perspective and am quite a perfectionist when it comes to my multi-layered, time-intensive surfaces. Although my hard-edge technique reflects on Pop art and artists such as Patrick Caulfield, my use of arbitrary colour harks back to the Fauves, and my perspective and careful drawing reference artists such as Vermeer.