In this book, Harriet Shorr demonstrates her method of direct painting in which the subject is divested of conventional understanding and seen, instead, simply as shapes, colours, and tones. These are painted as they appear to the field of vision, rather than to a fixed point of view. The hand then responds to what the eye sees and the gesture of the brush is an expression of feeling aroused by the perception. The subject matter is still life, which Shorr believes is most compatible with her method of painting, with the result that her work has a refreshing immediacy.