This a small palette knife painting of the back garden at #10 Copsewood Avenue in Bournemouth. I think it was painted around 1964 or 65 judging by the size of the apple tree we planted when we first moved there. I feel like this painting was done as a personal challenge to capture the back lighting from the setting sun that generates those interesting shadows and accentuates the bright red leaves on that apple tree. Those red leaves tell us that it was painted in the early autumn and our poor lawn is looking distinctly the worse for wear from the summer drought.

This work is unsigned, which often indicated a dissatisfaction with some aspect of the painting. To my eye I find the lack of separation between our old shed and the birch tree trunk the main issue, although that might also be her attempt to minimize that shed. But it could also mean this was just an exercise and an excuse to get outside to play with technique and color as well as enjoy the sunshine in our own back garden and not something to share with the world. Regardless, the images does take me back to my childhood and time spent in that garden some sixty years ago.