Art

PAINTINGS BY ANTHONY ADOLPH

Arthur’s Stone greetings cards

6″ x 4″ greetings cards showing an original watercolour by Anthony Adolph of the astonishing Arthur’s Stone dolmen near Dorstone, Herefordshire. Said in local folklore to have been the burial place of King Arthur, this genuinely ancient Neolithic dolmen has been the subject of ongoing archaeological digs in the 2020s that have already revealed an associated stone circle and two avenues of post holes.  £3.00 each including envelope, UK postage free.  

Commissions
I am now accepting commissions for landscapes and buildings in pen and ink, pencil, watercolour and oil.

Church Corner Cottage, Playford, Suffolk, May-June 2022, oil on board, 8″ x 6″, commissioned by Victoria Bunbury as a present for her mother, who lives there with her cats, and reproduced here by her kind permission.

I can work from life, from sketches, and also from photographs and am happy to discuss commissions by telephone and e-mail, or personal visit if close enough. Paintings of houses can be accompanied by research into house history.

A VERY BRIEF RESUME OF MY WORK AS AN ARTIST

I have enjoyed drawing and painting all my life, as my mother’s collection of memorabilia attests:

Bruno Bear, drawn in the late 1970s, aged c. 12

By the early 1980s, I had become a keen painter of nature, and this love has remained with me ever since.

Studies from life of a baby blackbird, 1981, aged 14

This love of painting led to the sale of a few watercolours of plants in 1983, that made me a decent bit of pocket money.

Study of an arum, 1983, aged 16

I gained an A – my only one – in art ‘A’ level and continued painting. I even considered a career as a professional artist, but in the end my interest in history prevailed, so I studied history at university and then studied genealogy, and allowed writing to take over. When I did paint, it was on an historical theme.

Portrait of my grandfather Joseph Albert Stanislaus Adolph, as a Cavalier, c. 1989, aged 22

I also drew some illustrations for my articles and published books, such as Brutus of Troy.

Brutus of Troy sees the execution of Charles I in the siren’s mirror

After a long period of dormancy, my interest in painting revived  a few years ago, whilst studying the life and art of my 4 x great grandfather Perry Nursey.  Nursey believed passionately in studying and painting from nature, and this was a love he passed on to his sons and to his neighbour and junior, Thomas Churchyard. Though long dead, Nursey and Churchyard have both taught me, constantly, by example and my current work is based explicitly on theirs, albeit sometimes with (an inevitably) more contemporary styles breaking through. I spent the first year working in watercolour and pen and ink.

Poppies on the path from Great Bealings to Little Bealings, Suffolk, July 2019

study of wheat, Shoreham, 2019

Naxos Agios Giorgios, with Paros on the horizon, 18 September 2019

Capler Cottage, Herefordshire, August 2020

I then graduated to oil painting, also following the lead of Nursey and Churchyard, though always I suppose testing the boundaries.

Cows’ parsley at South Norwood, Surrey,  May 2020

Brasted Hill Farm and the North Downs looking east towards Maidstone, from the corner of Hogtrough Lane and The Nower, Kent, May 2020

Shoulder of Mutton Wood, Wouldham, Kent, poppies, 1 June 2020

Callow Farm from Coldnose Lane, 2021

Alfie and Betsy ploughing with their owner Roger Paul Smith at Elvastone, Herefordshire (in the  Llanwarne & District Agricultural Improvement Society’s ploughing match), September  2021

The Wye Valley between Monmouth and Redbrook (looking back to Redbrook), 2 November 2021

Farmer Rudge’s Hereford bull at Ballingham Court Farm, January 2022.

Morning fog at Biblets, Hoarwithy, January 2022

Ogbourne St Andrew, Wiltshire, hawthorn, cows’ parsley and buttercups, May 2022

Please feel free to contact me to discuss commissioning a picture.