Apart from wartime service,[6] during which she worked as a cartographer for the Office of War Information, Clough painted full-time until her death in 1999, supplementing her income with teaching posts at Chelsea (1956–69) and Wimbledon School of Art (1966-97).

[4] Clough retained strong links with the area throughout her career; the coastal landscape, a local quarry, and fishermen at nearby Lowestoft and Yarmouth harbours provided significant early subjects.

[10] Clough's early subject matter led to her being linked with Neo-Romantic artists such as John Minton and Michael Ayrton.

During the 1950s, Clough became close friends with the painter and critic John Berger; they went drawing together in the marshalling yards at Willesden Junction.

The novelist Margaret Drabble has noted that while many of her early paintings included the human figure, it gradually disappeared from her works, and Clough's canvases became more abstract during the 1960s and 1970s.

[14] During a 1982 interview with Robertson, which was published in the catalogue for an exhibition of Clough's work held that year at the Warwick Arts Trust, the artist described how: "I prefer to look at the urban or industrial scene or any unconsidered piece of ground.

"[15] In the latter decades of her career, Clough made a number of abstract works that reference fragments of urban detritus and rubbish that she found on the streets of London, such as plastic bags, discarded gloves, and oil stains.

[17] The early 1980s saw Clough embark on a series of paintings that focussed on an abstracted 'gate' motif, and she also became fascinated by the shadows cast by passing people on subway walls, creating a number of works on this theme.

[20] Throughout her career, Clough also made a number of assemblages from found objects that she gathered on her trips to industrial sites, the extent of which only became clear when these were discovered in her studio after her death.

[23] Prunella Clough's paintings often share a mild or neutral colour palette, sometimes with punctuating strong or harsh colors.

“Clough employed thick impasto, she daubed, she scraped, she gauged and scratched, she obliterated, experimenting with a variety of mixed media”.