It is a noisy, luminous profusion that builds up over shadowy reaches behind and scatters the gaze every which way. Red light has the longest wavelength in the spectrum visible to the human eye, on the cusp of infrared. Notice the red horizontals, the last to be applied, sitting quietly on the top layer, like the warming filaments of an electric heater. Scully's early work is systematic. Clean, hard edges are achieved by means of a lot of masking tape. He would mark up a grid, lay masking tape onto the canvas, apply paint (acrylic), then another set of masking tape lines, more paint with heavy rollers, and so on until the canvas was filled up, a panel of taut plaid. He only stopped when information that had been put down was being taken away. Architectural, these grid structures lend 'Red Light' the soaring verticality of a skyscraper, anticipating perhaps Scully's move from Newcastle to New York, Greenbergian terrain, in 1975 (he turned to oils at that point). For a full painting description on the British Council’s website please click on the link below under ‘More on this painting’