It is not often that I know the afterlife of a painting once it is sold from a gallery.

My flower heads project started whilst I was living and working in London. I was fascinated by the need to refresh the flowers in public gardens and parks while they seemed to be still in their prime because the gardeners schedule dictated a plant regime change. Skips and wheelbarrows filled haphazardly with glorious blooms . The picture above was inspired by a similar phenomenon. I worked near Harley Street in London for a long while. Bleep in hand , I could wander the cobbled mews out of hours while waiting for emergencies to call me back to work.

The Mewses of Marylebone are fascinating places. Very famous and or wealthy people live there and use their back lanes as more discrete ways of accessing their homes. They walk their dogs there and have  deliveries delivered. Royalty and celebrities are dropped to the back of prestigious medical clinics for treatments and appointments.  For the subject of this blog, Florists change very posh flower arrangements in homes and Medical Clinics every day. Flowers still beautiful and vivid are tossed into large buckets or skips and dumped. Smart phone in hand I used to take pictures of these crazy juxtapositions of beautiful flowers chucked out with newspapers or take-away food boxes.

Many exhibitions later the smaller paintings had sold. The big one went off to Cotehele. A Mediaeval Dower house in the Tamar Valley

In these auspicious surroundings my painting found its forever home.  Which should be the end of the story. But unknown to me a friend had bought it.

She was somewhat surprised by the size of it as she tried to get it in her car. And even more surprised when she had it in her own hallway.  With only millimetres to spare it snuggled between her picture rail and dado rail . Very much a statement piece.

P.s I popped this painting in the sun to dry. Hugo had a pee close by and was no respecter of wet paint.