'Solo Flight' was one of the first paintings completed after Lanyon had learned to fly over the Cornish coast in his glider, a favourite hobby. Talking about this picture, he explained that "The red is the track of something moving over the surface of the painting, and, at the same time, the track of the aircraft moving over the ground below. Blue air merges with the land. I wanted to get the sense of something far away and down below inside the red track". After exhibiting in New York in 1957, Lanyon began employing the expressive, gestural brushstrokes used by the American Abstract Expressionists.