The artist, a former lecturer in Fine Art at the Falmouth College of Art, claims to paint anything that takes his interest, usually on a small scale, and as directly as possible. He chooses a viewpoint and exploit the pictorial space, sometimes lifting the ground plane towards the picture plane to enhance a sense of immediacy and surprise, and to facilitate interest in the handling of light, colour and surface. He seems to have followed his own precepts to the letter in this painting, in which he depicts the delicacy of the porcelain ornamental moulding of the cake stand and the way in which it is echoed by the lace edging of the tablecloth.