Even through the 1950s, when Abstract Expressionism was a behemoth movement, Peter Kinley's engagement with abstraction was critical and considered. He reflected, 'I do aim to find recognisable images in my painting; this does not imply a return to 'Realism' or 'Naturalism' in the nineteenth century sense, but of translating experience (largely but not exclusively of a visual kind) into paint... I begin with a clear idea of what I intend to paint, but in trying to realise this idea in paint it may be necessary to change the image quite a lot.'

Kinley was inspired by Nicholas de Staël’s own dance between abstraction and representation, whose work he had encountered when de Staël held an exhibition in London in 1953. Accordingly, Studio Interior with Window has recognisable spatial depth and structure, but it is realised through abstracted shapes. Colour appears to have been applied schematically, with an acknowledgement of light and shadow, but an overriding attention to the atmosphere of the studio.

When Studio Interior was painted, Kinley’s star was on the rise. Over the course of the 1950s he gradually relinquished thick, gestural, painterly impasto in favour of a sparer and more clarified aesthetic quality. In 1951 and ‘53 Kinley was selected for Gimpel Fils’ Six Young Contemporaries exhibition, and his first solo exhibition was held at the same gallery in 1954. Paul Rosenberg & Co in New York held solo exhibitions of Kinley's work in 1960 and 1962. A further studio interior scene, also from 1960 and similarly composed of blocks of impastoed colour, is in the collection of Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (K5556)