Professional artists working in Edinburgh in the 1930s and 1940s were inclined to follow a particular path, which was based on the French ‘belle peinture’ [beautiful painting] tradition, with a focus on landscape and still-life. However, because Lucas was an amateur painter, he could develop in a completely free and idiosyncratic direction, marking him out as one of the most unusual Scottish artists of the twentieth century. In this dream-like painting, a figure of a child dissolves into the ground, their legs becoming roots, surrounded by other limb-like forms. Above, a more solid figure in a green shroud appears to feed a flower in a pot. The surrounding scene abandons traditional perspective in exchange for a flat surface.