ATKINSON, Anthony Claude

1929 - 2014

Anthony Claude Atkinson was born at Croydon, London on 20 July 1929, son of Claude Charles Atkinson (1893-1979), an advertising & graphic artist, and his wife Antoinette Louise née Howgego (1901-1993), who married at Richmond, Surrey in 1923. Anthony was educated at Wimbledon College and studied at Wimbledon School of Art 1945-1950, continuing his training at the Royal College of Art, London 1951-1955 and, through one of his tutors, Carel Weight (1908-1997), found a position at the Colchester School of Art in 1955. The following year, he was awarded the post of lecturer and in 1964, became head of the school, taking over from John Scorror O'Connor and in 1976 became Head of the Faculty of Art and Music, Colchester Institute of Higher Education. Atkinson's paintings were reproduced as posters for London Transport 1956-1966, which included advertisements for the annual London Boat Race in 1956 and posters depicting the countryside around Runnymede promoting day trips 'beyond the city'. Well known for his landscapes of Essex and the East Anglian countryside, of the Boxted region and Mersey Island. Anthony made preparatory sketches and studies 'en plein air' and returned to his studio to make final paintings. The Norfolk countryside and coastline was a popular subject in the past for artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, John Sell Cotman and Thomas Kerrich, and was explored by Atkinson in a group of early oil paintings from the 1960s. More recent paintings of Provence and the South of France demonstrate Atkinson's adeptness also for gouache, a medium for which he championed and written. He exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club from the Coach House, Great Horkesley, Essex in 1977, two paintings, 'Near Higham' and 'Winter at Boxted' and exhibited at the Royal Academy; The Minories, Colchester; Leighton House Gallery, London; Gainsborough's House Gallery, Sudbury; Digby Gallery at Mercury Theatre, Colchester; British Council, Kuwait; Cambridge University; Chappel Galleries; Colchester Art Society; Phoenix Art Gallery, Lavenham and John Russell Gallery, Ipswich. In the 1990s, he organised group exhibitions at Ernst & Young that introduced and promoted young painters to a new audience. In 2000, Atkinson was elected President of Colchester Art Society. He married at Hampstead, London in 1959, Joan I. Rowlands [Dawson] and had one son and a stepdaughter. Anthony Claude Atkinson died at his home, Coach House, 67 Coach Road, Great Horkesley, on 4 August 2014.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 9a Victoria Road, Colchester
1960 352 Gravel Pit near Abingdon
1961 100 Gravel Pit near Radley
1962 193 Landscape at Boxted
         455 Meadows near Flatford
1965 274 West Mersea
from Coach House, Great Horkesley, Essex
1966 163 Stream near Boxted
1967 625 Boxted Water Meadows
         757 Stream near Boxted
1968 569 Winter Landscape
         1066 Boxted Mill
1969 1153 Corner of a Field, Boxted, Essex
1970 937 Bridge at Boxted
1979 710 May Landscape, Boxted

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Works by This Artist