Enfield Artist Greta Ward

This lovely 1930s oil painting shows a leafy view in 'Church Street' in Enfield, north London. The artist is the interesting and talented—and somewhat overlooked—Greta Ward, who in 1936 married fellow artist Archibald Sanderson (1901–1972). The couple lived in Colne Road, just a stone's throw from Church Street.

Ward and Sanderson painted in a similar style, their work resembling that of near-contemporary Ethelbert White. They both depicted bucolic landscapes of southern England and worked in a graphic style that was influenced by wood engraving and poster design of the period. The legacy of the design aesthetic of the Bloomsbury group, with in turn its roots in European modernism and cubism, can be seen in Ward's preoccupation with the formal qualities of a landscape and its patterning effects through texture, shape and colour.

Ward and Sanderson both exhibited at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and elsewhere. They were active with Enfield Art Circle, with Archibald Sanderson becoming its president in 1954 and serving the Art Circle well until his death in 1972; a studio room at Millfield House, Enfield is named after him.