Why this cliff and where? Here, perhaps, Sykes' picturesque urges surrender to a subject that is built upon a more abstract interest in composition. The cliff is impressive but one of many. The sky too. The "bed" at the base of the road seems like an invitation to build a road, except that we do not know how it all moves - falls perhaps - to the right or where the road might take one. The rock and sky as parts - almost halves - are seen in a simple composition energized by the slant of it all - or most of it - and the curve in the "road." The side of the cliff is almost a texture with its aggregate parts acting egalitarian. And the sky is painterly, in a modernist way. No billowing picturesque romance in that white on blue.
