• Born in 1949: the eldest daughter to Richard Dean Ansdell who was
• Born in 1919: the only son to Richard Carrol Ansdell who was
• Born in 1889: the eldest son to Carrol Wheeler Ansdell who was
• Born in 1859: the youngest son to Richard Ansdell (1815 – 1885) 

I have been thinking about this website for a long time as I increasingly use the internet for my ongoing and long-term research into the life, art and times of my great, great grandfather – Richard Ansdell RA – with a view to writing his biography.

Everyone painted in our household – both my parents and both my maternal grandmothers.  To a child it seemed rather a singular pursuit and I was more interested in the great outdoors, my friends and a strong drive to find my own feet away from all this creativity and talent around me.  A typical rebellious child in denial of the inherited ‘obvious’ growing up in the ‘60’s

I subsequently chose a career in a different sphere in which I have always worked and still work to this day.

Along the way I met and married (in 1970) my constant companion and best friend, Colin, and we had one daughter who has added to our little family circle, a wonderful son-in-law and an equally wonderful granddaughter.

Once I hit middle age and had satisfied my desires to be independent from my origins, I started to look back constantly to those formative years and I now realise just how much I was then influenced by art, architecture, colour, the forms of nature and elements of design, without even realizing it, and it dawned on me that I had a naturally richly unique heritage already inbuilt in me.  Ever since then, I have tapped those resources: the ability to appreciate something outstanding – whether art, music or literature; the discipline to look at something long enough to understand it and make it work for me and to understand why it works; the glorious moments of discovery; the silence of being alone; the warmth of sharing with friends and the creative spirits of those gone before.

It seemed a natural progression, coupled with curiosity and a love of Victorian history, to properly investigate my great, great grandfather and to do him justice in a way that no-one before me has done – it’s my way of saying “thank you” for my birthright; enriching my own life in the process, and hopefully others as well.