The still life of jar filled with dried or dying flowers, white jar and stained bottle on a chequered table-cloth, is contrary to his urbane 1660s style. John McEwen wrote: 'Phillips's pictures first caught my attention in the Sixties because they were so totally to do with city life.' The imagery of ‘ordinary experience’ here precedes his depictions of ‘city life’. The conjunction of still life and the artist’s bemused-looking face hints at the intuitive approach characterising his Pop Art paintings. His face is apparently free-floating, the oval contour around his chest suggesting a mirror reflection, a picture on the wall or the artist oddly looking out through a port-hole. The rather dull flowers may seem at odds with youthful grace and precocity but the picture’s radiating blackness perhaps suggests mortality.