The reference photographs are mined from collections of images stored over many years; the subjects are largely preoccupations that have been present in Nick's work for decades. For example, symbols of suburbia (Breezeblock, iron gates, domestic garden beds, indoor plants) and themes that reoccur from childhood (the bold, flat designs of national flags and football shirts from the 80's and 90's). He encouraged the random and automatic selections of colours (from the collaged coloured paper) and spontaneous lines to create surprising choices that would never be selected otherwise.

The Collages were then used as a starting point for works on paper and larger paintings. The juxtaposition of figurative elements (photographs) and abstract colour fields (created by the coloured paper and gestural lines) collide on the same picture plane and created a vibrant and curious tension. Spatial ambiguity is deliberately explored between the colliding elements.

The works in Permanent Rainbow entwine several desperate stands of subject and explorations that have informed Nick's practice over the last 20 years and frame them in a new and spontaneous light. He was excited to be able to incorporate seemingly opposing painterly elements; Large scale abstract mark making, carefully rendered figurative elements, bold hard-edge geometry, and similarly a collision of random subject interests.