In a series of paintings entitled Walk Along the Quay of the early 1950s Terry Frost took as a starting point the quay with its fishing boats, but what Frost creates is an over-all structure which has its own integrity. Likewise, Blue and Red which was painted in Cornwall, pursues this same theme and possesses a similar sense of forms structured along guiding lines. A high vantage point gives the painting a diagrammatic quality, colours are bound by line as stained glass is held by lead and the boats are presented as a series of dancing lozenges. In the present painting the colours are those of the sea, sky and fishing boats.

The paint handling, which is far thicker than Frost's later work, shows how indebted he was to recent French painting but also places him in the context of the lastest twentieth century British painting, suggesting that at this moment in his career the artist was really wrestling with his paintings as he developed the forms that would establish his reputation and that he would continue to explore for the next half century.