Bellany has always used his immediate surroundings and his own experiences as raw material for his art. In 1988 he underwent liver transplant surgery. As soon as he came out of the intensive care unit at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, Bellany set to work producing self-portraits, charting the course of his hospitalisation and convalescence, covering the walls of his hospital room with drawings and watercolours. They reflect the inevitable ups and downs of the patient: the intense physical pain, the discomfort and fears that he might not pull through, and then the optimism about a new lease of life.