Marion Adnams: Into ‘the Enchanted Country’

This gallery is dedicated to the work of the artist Marion Adnams. Adnams’ interest in art and making was nurtured by her parents, both of whom were artistic. Although she first trained as a language teacher, she later attended art classes at Derby School of Art where she requalified as an art teacher in 1938. It was about this time that she started painting in a surrealist style.

The starting points for these pictures were often natural objects Adnams had seen or picked up during walks, or on regular trips to southern France. Sometimes, ideas sprang from items she had glimpsed on a visit to this museum. Adnams would study these objects closely, making many drawings, before incorporating them into paintings. It was at this point, she later explained, that they took on a surreal and mysterious life of their own as she played with their scale and setting. She described this transformation as a sort of resurrection, or bringing back to life, of dead or inanimate objects.

For Adnams, time for painting was squeezed around teaching and care for her aging mother. She later described the process of painting as an escape into what she called ‘the Enchanted Country’. Tragically in 1968, just 8 years after retiring, she began to lose her sight and was forced to give up painting completely. Today, her work is in greater demand than ever for exhibitions and her popularity is increasing as a result.

What can I see?

This display features items from Derby Museums ‘collection and will be rotated from time to time to allow for her work to be shown elsewhere. Some of this material has rarely been seen before, being part of a large and diverse archive that was generously donated by her estate in autumn 2022.

Main image: Alter Ego, by Marion Adnams, 1945, oil on panel. © Derby Museums and Artist’s Estate.