PAINTINGS created by an American artist have taken pride of place at a Dorset care home after being designed by the cousin of a former resident.

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

One of the pictures is a limited-edition print of a New England city scene with old brownstone buildings and aspects of café society, while the other is an original showing a New England woodland in autumn.

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

A year on, Mrs Cottrell's daughter Jenny has donated the pieces in her mother’s memory for fellow residents, staff and visitors to enjoy.

Born in London in 1919, Mr Genders 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.

Mr Genders studied art after serving as a US naval medic in the Second World War and continued to combine a military medical and artistic career until his death in 1991.

"I couldn’t think of a better home for these pieces. It’s a pleasure to watch all the residents enjoy them," Jenny Cottrell said.