As an abstract painter Albert Irvin tries to express the ideas and emotions in his life. He does this by exploring the qualities of paint through the different marks that he makes and the colours he chooses. 'My paintings are not in any sense depictions of anything: I like to think that rather than being pictures of the world, they are pictures about it.'

'Avis' is typical of Albert Irvin's large abstract paintings, with its expressive, exuberant and spontaneous marks.