This gouache was made in 1965 after Vaughan returned from a road trip around Morocco with his friend and doctor Patrick Woodcock; they hired a car and drove from South to North. Vaughan noted the changes in the quality of the terrain and recorded his observations in his journal, highlighting the impression the faded, maroon landscape, the Atlas mountains and hot beaches had on him. He stated, 'Marvellous landscape driving up the coastal road from Agadir. Dry, luminous, scrubby foothills cinnamon pink to ochre white dotted with dark olives & patches of glowing saturated colour.Tremendous intensity of light, burning sun' (K. Vaughan, Journal, 19 April 1965).

On his return, Vaughan's palette intensified becoming richer and warmer. The sharp, crystalline light of Morocco revealed new colour combinations. He wrote, 'The cotton djellabas start a deep indigo blue and bleach in the sun through every tone of the colour until they reach a bluish white. The same dye must be used in the paint on all the shutters in Essaouira which are indigo inside and pale cobalt outside' (K. Vaughan, Journals & Drawings, Alan Ross, 1966, p. 212).

The figures of the seated bathers presented here are traced out with a characteristically summary outline. The combination of ink, oil pastel and gouache, is typical of Vaughan's preference for a rich and varied surface. 1965 was a gouache year for him and he produced an avalanche of paintings, many of which were inspired by his Moroccan sojourn. He referred to these creative outbursts as 'gouache marathons', and recorded his progress with ever-increasing manic intensity. By the summer he produced nearly eighty. He confided just how obsessive and time-consuming his gouache process was:

'The routine continues. I start the day with gouache. I have no particular idea in mind, but there is nothing else to do. After breakfast, I get out the pots and jars and rags and paper. It is quite systematized now. I have been doing it since last November. Like everything else compulsive. And it adds up to agonised futility. Yet the effect of it is no more futile than other people's routine. But mine is solitary. It involves no one else. I have done more gouaches that ever can be shown or sold. Yet I continue to do them because there is nothing else I can do' (K. Vaughan, Journal, July 26, 1965).