Provenance: the artist’s own collection

John Sergeant writes: ‘My wife has no words to describe her two paintings, she expresses herself in paint (beautifully in my view) and prefers to leave it at that. So I will add a few words by way of introduction. We were told recently by a nice woman whose business it was, that there are now less than 2000 greengrocers left in Britain, with more shops closing daily. My wife has a great liking for greengrocers’ shops, carefully choosing bunches of watercress, basil, carrots, or radishes, delighting in it all. Most of these things are eaten, but the odd bunch of something or other is painted, and the resulting picture when hung appropriately, in this case in the kitchen, is suddenly just as beautiful as a bunch of flowers in the hall. Who would have thought this possible? The same is true of the holly sprigs: such beauty to be got from that deep glossy green, which sets off the brilliant red of the not too many berries. The rhythms of the twigs linking the two main elements together.’ (Letter to Paul Liss, 12th March 2005.)