Scott’s career throughout the 1960s was booming, representing Britain at the Venice Biennale back in 1958 had done much to secure his reputation and the decade was saw exhibitions aplenty, both at home and abroad and by 1964 Alan Bowness’ monograph on the artist was published. Scott spent a transformative scholarship year in Berlin 1963-64 after he was invited by the Ford Foundation, he greatly enjoyed this time away, overstaying by a few months. He began a series ‘Berlin Blues’ which explored a new set of motifs and a new way of painting for the artist. By the end of 1964, blues had become the artist’s main colours and so this painting pre-dates that preoccupation, with its inclusion of brown and black. However, an exploration of new forms that is typical of his Berlin-era work is evident in the present example, gone are the vestiges of still life forms, in their place more abstract forms fill the space. Layered and well-worked over, there is experimentation with the formal possibilities of the paint and pastel, with scratched mark-making concentrated into the surface, the artist was clearly working out new relationships between both forms and the surface as a whole.