Fred Cuming
Fred Cuming transformed the language of landscape painting, distilling light, mood, and atmosphere into poetic visions that shimmer with quiet intensity and timeless beauty.
Cuming’s passion for the sky and the coastline is a regular theme. The East Sussex coastline, in particular the area around Camber and Rye, has provided the backdrop for much of his work. He is fascinated by the ever-changing skies formation as well as the subject of the moods he feels around the sea, skies, harbours, marshland, ships and figures wandering on beaches. These subjects are painted loosely with a restricted and light palette creating a dreamy effect.
Cuming studied at Sidcup School of Art from 1945 to 1949 and, having completed his National Service, went on to study at the Royal College of Art from 1951 to 1955, where he gained a Rome Scholarship and an Abbey Minor Scholarship. A solo show was held in 1978 at the Thackeray Gallery, London, and since then he has exhibited regularly in solo and group shows throughout the UK and the US. In 2001 he was given the honour of being the featured artist in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, with an entire gallery within the show dedicated to his work.
“Art to me is a form of abstraction. It’s the artist’s job to convey the message, meaning and emotion which is the essence of abstraction – what you have experienced as a person and how you interpret it into your work.’”
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