William Scott used ordinary kitchen items in abstract ways. He chose these objects because they provided contrasting shapes that he could arrange on a simple background. Scott was the son of a sign-painter and one of 11 children. His austere background stayed with him. Scott said, 'I chose...objects without any glamour, I wanted my pictures to have a painting not literary success...What interests me in the beginning of a picture is the division of spaces and forms; these must be made to move and be animated like living matter'. His work became increasingly abstract after the 1950s.