In the 1980s the Queen temporarily abandoned her figurative style in order to try her hand at abstract painting, which sometimes incorporated constructivist elements executed with the small, broad and dense brush strokes of impressionist technique.

This resulted in a series of lyrical abstractions from nature, which, when closely inspected, reveal a wealth of detail and texture. From that time on the Queen seems normally to have preferred abstraction from nature as her means of expression, thus enabling both a naturalistic rendering of the motif and an abstract colouring.

In continuation with this, from around 1990 onwards the Queen began to experiment with the inherent possibilities of colour. She experimented with the colour yellow in paintings executed in various shades of yellow, the colour red in paintings executed in various shades of red, and so on. The studio still lifes from 1989 and in respectively shades of greyish turquoise and brown and shades of yellow and blue-grey are examples of such experiments, as is her Red still life from 1991.

The investigations of the inherent nature of colour also include a series of paintings of blossoming roses in which a whole register of red, pale red and violet shades is displayed against a neutral grey background. Generally speaking, the Queen seems during these years to have been working her way through various themes, techniques and modes of expression in order to investigate and develop the qualities of pure painting in a quest to create her own personal imagery.