Refusing compulsory military service, Uglow was registered as a conscientious objector in 1954, and spent two years undertaking community work, assisting in the restoration of a war-damaged church by Christopher Wren in the City of London, redecorating the house of the artist Patrick George, and helping on a farm in Surrey.
[8] In 1981 he took part in the exhibition Eight Figurative Painters at the University of Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, and in 1984 in The Hard Won Image at the Tate Gallery, London.
[10] Writing in 1990, Tim Wilcox said "[Uglow's] staple is the traditional studio nude but set in relation to an artificial space contrived by the artist himself with geometrical markings and the odd prop used as if by a minimalist stage designer.
[13] This was a process that Uglow developed from his early studies under William Coldstream,[14] and it was to become a mainstay of teaching at the Slade School of Art in London tying into an already long standing emphasis on drawing there.
The result was paintings that had a strong sculptural quality, but within the tradition of the shallow picture plane of modernism, particularly as it was understood by Cézanne, although Uglow's work has also been compared to the simple classicism of the Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca particularly for the way he would make his life models pose in ways to emphasise simple geometric shapes.
Standing before the subject to be painted, Uglow registered measurements by means of a metal instrument of his own design (derived from a modified music stand); with one eye closed and with the arm of the instrument against his cheek, keeping the calibrations at a constant distance from the eye, the artist could take the measure of an object or interval to compare against other objects or intervals he saw before him.
Colour was fundamental to his understanding, and painters such as Matisse and the Venetians influenced him all his artistic life along with many others, although perhaps Cézanne, Morandi, Poussin and Ingres were closest to his heart.
[18] But Uglow was also well travelled to other countries, spending six months in Italy on a Prix de Rome scholarship in 1953, and later making work in France, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, India and China.
Art critic Frank Whitford, writing in The Sunday Times has jokingly suggested Uglow made such an impression on the young Cherie that 30 years later the Blairs named their son after him.
[19] His Articulation (1993-95) features a reclining nude woman with her back to the viewer, with a tree branch in the background; actress Lisa Coleman was the model.
[20] Uglow's perceptual work continues through those he taught and inspired such as Robert Dukes, John Long, Suresh Patel and Andy Pankhurst.