In 1940 Ivon Hitchens moved to Sussex with his wife and young son, following the bombing of their London home. This painting fuses together interior and exterior views of the artist’s studio, ‘Greenleaves’. The artist’s son John is shown playing in a sandpit outside. Hitchens’ paintings are characterised by the use of flat areas of colour and the creation of depth through the modulation of colour. Here he has used the technique of incising into the paint, probably with the end of a paintbrush. This adds detail to the work, as well as creating a sense of linear perspective which is unusual in Hitchens’ work.