Painted by an artist whose biography and even first name is not mentioned in Wellington City Council’s records, this work provides a lush view into a garden. While this could be a direct study of the corner of a residential or park garden with its rich, precise application of paint, a hint of the sublime, a painterly other-world is suggested by the heightened colour and form of the leaves and bushes which exhibit a vibrant jewel-like quality.

It is likely this work was purchased from Bett-Duncan Gallery on Cuba Street, established by Catherine Duncan and Elva Bett in Oct 1968, or the later incarnation, Elva Bett Gallery, established in 1975 when Duncan retired. This art space offered an alternative to the formality of the Academy of Fine Arts, drawing diverse and cosmopolitan painters such as Rita Angus, Don Binney and Robin White, as well as internationally born and trained artists. The directors aggressively pursued the best and brightest young painters, especially recent graduates from acclaimed art schools in both Auckland and Christchurch. This eclectic scattering of art was sustained by the energy of the directors and the chaotic anarchy of art in the late 1960s.