American-born painter Anna Lea Merrit is best known for her picture Love Locked Out in the Tate collection. In 1894 Merrritt painted the Life of Christ for the rural church of St Martin's at Blackheath Village, Surrey, designed by the Arts & Crafts architect Charles Harrison Townsend. Olive Maggs explores Merritt's practice as a pioneering professional woman artist and her use of a little known water glass technique to guarantee the survival of the murals. They remain in excellent condition, a valuable contribution by a 19C woman artist to the history of British Mural Painting.