PAINTINGS by an American artist have gone on display at a Dorset care home.

Two watercolours by 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 last year.

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.

Born in London in 1919, Richard moved to the United States with his family and finished his schooling in Indiana.

He was a direct descendant on his mother’s side of William Penn, the English Quaker best known 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.

Visiting Newstone House to hand over the paintings and give a talk to residents about her family, Jenny said: “I couldn’t think of a better home for these pieces. It’s a pleasure to watch all the residents enjoy them.”

Observing the works in the home’s Milhill Lounge, resident Rita Clay said: “It’s lovely to have meaningful pictures, especially when we can see them every day and have a connection to them.”

One of the pictures is a limited-edition 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.