Introduction
Frederik George Rees Cuming RA (born 1930), normally known as Fred Cuming, is a contemporary British landscape painter, who works in a traditional manner.
Life and art
Cuming was born in London of English, Scottish and Irish ancestry. He received his art education at Sidcup School of Art (1945–9) and, after National Service, at the Royal College of Art. He was awarded the Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship to visit Italy. In 1964, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA), and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1974. He is also a member of the New English Art Club.
As well as continuing to paint Italian scenes, including Venice, he still devotes much time to the landscape of the Southern English coastline, including Hastings and Rye. His art has an impressionist quality which captures "the fleeting impressions of his surroundings." He first encountered such landscapes as a child evacuee during the Blitz. The powerful contrast to his home in London created an enduring love for it. He lives in Rye, near Ashford, Kent.
In a review for the BBC, Andrew Walker said:
Fred Cuming's haunting, vaguely Turneresque, painting, Ferry to Polrwen, combines great subtlety, especially in his skilful representation of a lowering sky, with an end-of-era feel, strongly redolent of Turner's own masterpiece, the Fighting Temeraire.
Awards
His awards include:
- 1977 Joint winner of Grand Prix Fine Art, Monte Carlo
- 1986 Sir Brinsley Ford Award, New English Club
- 1988 Grand Prix de l'Art Contemporaries
- 1994 House and Garden Award
Collections
His work is in many collections including the Royal Academy, Ministry of Works, Maidstone Museum, Carlisle Museum,Worcester College, Oxford, London Tourist Board, National Trust Foundation for Art, Department of the Environment,Brighton and Hove Museum, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff,Bradford Museum, New Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone, Monte Carlo Museum, St John's College, Oxford, Lloyd's of London, London Weekend Television and the Guinness Collection.