In Hokusai (1994) Greaves's concern is as much with colour as it is the formal properties of a Japanese woodcut:
I would throw a spanner in the works by adding a figurative element to stop it being merely an exercise in colour structure. I wanted my paintings to have a figurative factor as their impurity but to have the firmness of abstract painting. I wanted to be able to feed-in informal elements of my life in a symbolic rather than descriptive way, which I couldn't do if it was purely abstract. These impurities are like life. There are unforeseen circumstances, quirkiness, humour. Paintings have to reflect that.
History
Derrick Greaves, Paintings and Drawings 1952 - 2002, James Hyman Gallery, 28 January - 4 March 2005
Literature
James Hyman, Derrick Greaves:From Kitchen Sink to Shangri -La, Lund Humphries, London 2007, illustrated studio view p.139 and again, p.146.