In the early 60s, Shadbolt experimented with automatic techniques, involving chance, splashing ink, tilting the surface, and scratching the surface with the tip of a brush.

Guiding the whole approach was the conflict between the implications of automatic, chance actions and spontaneous mark-making and his need to structure, build and compose a picture. He equated the latter with "will." The automatic procedures were directly connected to his physical and psychic being and embodied his authentic self. Only by "relaxing my rigid will, my pure physiology operates more freely so that the very reserve, pressure and fibre of my own natural 'style' emerges."

Source: Watson, Scott. Jack Shadbolt, Vancouver/Toronto, Canada, Douglas & McIntyre,1990, pp. 92.