Of Desk Unwin says: “This painting is of a desk viewed from above. I wanted to make the shape and size of the canvas part of the subject of the painting. The A4 paper and folder silhouettes are arranged around the edges of the painting, making the painting itself operate as a desk in scale and composition. In this arrangement I was interested in the combined connotations of the everyday, design and abstract painting. The blue spray paint has an industrial feel to it and an energy of quickness and irreverence, compared with the layers of painted marks and silver leaf built up below. One of the primary reasons I am interested in working with different materials is that they have different colour characteristics. A cerulean blue in acrylic will be quite different from that blue in oil, and then different again in spray-paint. One paint may have more modern qualities, another may have a poetic feel. For me, colour is never a totally isolated abstract thing – its physical qualities make me think of objects, feelings, people or places.”