Fred Cuming RA has devoted his life to expressing fleeting impressions of the world around him. He captures the moods and atmospheres generated by his subject matter. Fred’s subtle approach, focusing on light and tone, lends an elevated atmosphere to everyday scenes. His subjects are often oriented around the sea, skies, harbours, marshland, ships and figures wandering on beaches. Equally, interiors and still lifes are often sources of inspiration. He often paints the south coast of England, around Rye where he lives, Cornwall and also many visits to the Dorset coast especially around Lyme Regis.

Fred Cuming was born in 1930 in London and trained at the Sidcup School of Art between 1945 and 1949. After National Service he studied at the Royal College of Art for four years and was awarded the Abbey Travel Scholarship to visit Rome. In 1969 he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy, becoming a full member in 1974. At that time, he was the youngest member ever elected. Fred has been a member of the New English Art Club since 1960.

Fred has exhibited widely since his first one-man show at Thackeray Gallery, London, and has work in private and public collections internationally. In 2001 he was given the honour of being the ‘Featured Artist‘ in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, with an entire gallery of his own. In 2004, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the Arts by the University of Kent in Canterbury.

He has shown at Sladers Yard several times since 2012. Fred lives near Rye in East Sussex. He and his wife Audrey had two children and five grandchildren.

Fred Cuming’s book, the lavishly illustrated 190 page Another Figure in the Landscape, edited by Christian Tyler with an introduction by Richard Holmes OBE, is currently out of print but should be available again soon.