Cliff explained: "This painting from 2008 was inspired by the cover design of a biography of Joni Mitchell (entitled, appropriately enough, Shadows and Light)which mainly comprises a black background with white and mauve lettering.

I'd already produced a variation of this combination, where the colours were basically reversed, but here I decided to return to the original idea.

"Of all my work this is probably the most starkly contrasted, but one which contains a certain elegance. I especially like the glowing, pulsating quality, achieved by adding an extra layer of white to selected highlights and fading out from either one or both ends. The violet in the centre of the background also seems to emphasise this effect."