SPEND just a few minutes in the company of artist Anthony Atkinson and you are immediately transported to a time when north Essex was jam-packed with nationally renowned painters.

There was Edward Bawden, John Nash, Eduardo Paolozzi and Cedric Morris, to name but a few.

Anthony knew them all.

But as well as being an erudite conduit into the past, he is very much a popular figure of the present.

His exquisite idyllic landscapes of his beloved Provence, and closer to home the area around the River Stour and Boxted, are still very much in demand.

“I suppose my real, great love,”

Anthony begins, “was landscape painting and especially the painting of the French School, of which I am a great admirer.

“So when it became possible to paint only those things I really wanted to paint, it was landscape that I homed in on.

“My great influence is the French painter Pierre Bonnard and Provence my ideal place.

“My wife and I used to go there two or three times a year following, as you might call it, in the master’s footsteps.

“After his death, his place became derelict and I remember one wonderful trip, where we had the good fortune to see his studio and garden. It was a memorable experience.”

And then, of course, there’s the beautiful countryside near to his Great Horkesley home.

“Very much Boxted in particular,” he says. “The river tends to crop up in my work quite a bit as well. I remember one friend of ours being rather surprised to find me in my gum boots in the water getting to grips with the river.”

Born in 1929, Anthony grew up in various London suburbs as the son of an advertising and graphic artist.

“My father encouraged me in the practice of drawing,” he tells me, “and gave me this great opportunity to aim for a career in art.

“He was a good friend of the cartoonist Heath Robinson, who lived down the road from us, and I got to meet him and see his work. That was a great influence, too.”

After studying at Wimbledon School of Art, Anthony went to the Royal College of Art, where he got a highly sought-after fourth year scholarship.

Thanks to one of his tutors, Prof Carel Weight, he discovered there was a job going at the Colchester School of Art, which he took up in 1955. The following year, he was awarded the post of lecturer and then, in 1964, he became head of the school, taking over from John O’Conner. Eventually he was responsible for both music and art.

“When I arrived in Colchester,” he says, “there were some pretty big names here, such as John Nash and Eduardo Paulozzi, so it was a privilege really to be working in the same environment.”

Later, Anthony became the president of the Colchester Art Society – whose members had included Cedric Morris and Roderic Barrett – a post from which he only retired last year.

“You see, that was always my great passion,” he insists, “that a society such as the Colchester Arts Society didn’t disappear and that it continues to flourish.”

And he can be very proud that it still does so.

He can also be proud of the fact that his artwork is still deeply loved by many.

Anthony’s latest exhibition is at the Hayletts Gallery, in Maldon, and there are also two beautiful oils of his which form part of the Geedon Gallery’s autumn show in Fingringhoe.

“I’ve always thought it rather wonderful that I have made a living from doing the thing I love,” mhe says finally, “and I’m just so grateful other people enjoy my work too.”

Paintings By Anthony Atkinson & Pam Dan run at the Hayletts Gallery, Maldon, to November 9.