Irvin's foray into abstraction came from visiting the Abstract Expressionism show at the Tate in the 1950s. He described seeing works by artists such as Pollock and Rothko as 'like a bomb going off' for his practice, removing darker colours from his palette and creating works purely around bright colour and emotion. While Irvin's process for these paintings was often instinctive, he intended to push boundaries of complimentary colour theory, while conveying a force of energy for his audience to also draw upon.