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Phillip Allen's paintings are borne out of a continuous practice of sketching. Working on on a small scale, on A5 paper, using felt pens, the sketches chart the inception and development of his abstract forms and arrangements. Typically, variations of particular formal arrangements will be pursued through a vast number of sketches, which are then developed in small series of paintings on board of differing sizes. The scale and media of the paintings identifies them as gallery-based work, and Allen speaks about the “paradox of painting” as the struggle played out within the traditional confines of the rectangular canvas. He likens the activity of painting to the Escher drawing of a staircase, which defies visual logic by playing with perspective so that staircases interlock in physically impossible ways.