Throughout her career Clough was drawn to what she called ‘mechanical landscapes’. A frequent visitor to the docks along the Thames and the fishing harbours of Southwold and Lowestoft on the Suffolk coast, she recorded her observations on working activities, objects, textures and colours in brief but evocative notes: ‘Fish in tarp on floor, bluish coat, cap down, gulls hovering’. She would later use these notes as visual cues for paintings such as Fishermen with Sprats I. Some of these notes can be seen in a showcase in the next room.

Clough was keenly interested in subjects that were generally dismissed as unworthy of attention. Her acute sense for the telling details is evident in the arrangement of ropes in Lowestoft Harbour or the pile of fish in Fishermen in a Boat.