drew on her teacher's concept of tilting the usual verticals and horizontals, she employs this technique in her 1947 painting Essentials of Life. Petrov-Vodkin passed on to Clarke his knowledge of Cézanne's techniques in utilizing the shifting axes in a picture. In three self-portrait studies dated 1918, 1919, and 1921 and works that date to these years, Petrov-Vodkin began to use rectangular framing elements— doors, windows, mirrors — set at variance to the horizontal and vertical axes of the paper or canvas to structure his subjects. These framing elements give the effect of space that is altered by the life of the subject. Petrov-Vodkin prioritized the overall composition, rather than committing to the exact detail and proportions of these doors, windows and mirrors. This gave his paintings a structural quality while intensifying the psychological reality of the subject. For her Self Portrait of 1933, Clark borrows from Petrov-Vodkin's compositional methods, but made the decision to build her self-portrait around the colour black, creating her own aesthetic and moving away from the style of her teacher, who discouraged his students from using black. The painting is unified by the tilt of the figure and the slanted architectural elements, reflecting Petrov-Vodkin's influence. Also in Self Portrait, Clark employs the techniques she learned from her teacher—and utilized framing elements like doors, to structure her paintings; she is shown smiling confidently while leaning against a door, and her strong facial features are accentuated by the employment of minimal colour and by the understated elegance of her dress. In Clark's work, critics have noted two influences: Cézanne and to a lesser extent Picasso; Cézanne because Clark used colour to define form; Picasso, for the way she organized her portraits and still life. The tilt of the surfaces and the placement of the objects show she understood Picasso as she put him together with Petrov-Vodkin to turn out her own Paraskeva Clark still-lifes. Her painting Pink Cloud, 1937 in the National Gallery of Canada collection was cited as an example of her delicate sense of colour. Cézanne's influence is especially clear in her 1939 painting In the Woods. The painting's Cézannesque treatment of the forest floor shows the artist's awareness of European trends as well as her Russian training under Petrov-Vodkin. Clark's 1933 paintings Self Portrait and Portrait of Philip are her first major works that deal with the composition of the artwork, in which the