The lighter space in this painting's lower foreground looks like the back of a chair being offered to the viewer. If you took it, it would perhaps be on the understanding that you didn't move anything: with a subtle, appealing order, the edge of the napkin lines up to the edge of a pan, and, in polite table talk, the left blue container peeks into the darkness to mirror the amount that the grey shape – a cereal box? – leans into the space of the table. Though the blue bottle, for example, is an abstract shape, its paint reproduces clearly the sensation of looking into dark glass refracting the surrounding gloom and cutlery. There may be hints to this in a talk Scott gave in 1955, describing his technique: “I want to paint what I see but never immediately; there must be a time lapse, a “waiting time” for the visual experience to become involved with all other experience.