American artworks take pride of place at care home

from Caring May 2023

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ART lovers at a Dorset care home have welcomed a donation of two paintings created by the artist cousin of a former resident.

The watercolours, by the American painter Richard Atherstone Genders, have been put on display in a lounge at Colten Care’s Newstone House in Sturminster Newton.

Richard’s cousin Rosemary Cottrell was a resident at the home until her death in April 2022.

A year on, Rosemary’s daughter Jenny Cottrell has donated the pieces in her mother’s memory for fellow residents, staff and visitors to enjoy. Visiting Newstone House to hand over the paintings and give a talk to residents about her family, she said: “I couldn’t think of a better home for these pieces. It’s a pleasure to watch all the residents enjoy them.”

Born in London in 1919, Richard for the founding of the colony of Pennsylvania.

His father William was a ‘rough rider’ in the US volunteer cavalry serving in Cuba and later joined the famous Buffalo Bill wild west travelling show.

Richard studied art after serving as a US naval medic in World War Two.

He continued to combine a military medical and artistic career, becoming a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve and exhibiting paintings and sketches at galleries and art shows across the country. He maintained studios while living in New England and Virginia and died in 1991.

One of the pictures is a limitededition print of a New England city scene with old brownstone buildings and aspects of café society.

The other is an original showing a New England woodland in autumn.