Fred Cuming RA at Bridgepoint

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Bridgepoint, Rye is delighted to be hosting an exhibition of work by Fred Cuming RA from September 14 to 28, to support the Rye Arts Festival’s education programme. To celebrate nearly 90 years, 50 years based in the area, Cuming has chosen a selection of paintings and sketches, including his sketches for a portrait of Stephen Hawking.

Born in 1930, in London, Fred attended Sidcup School of Art from 1945-1949. After National Service, he attended the Royal College of Art in 1951, winning a Rome Scholarship and an Abbey Minor Scholarship. In 1964, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA), and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1974. A member of the New English Art Club, Associate of the Royal College of Art, Fred lives and works in East Sussex. Cuming’s first one-man show was held in 1978 at the Thackeray Gallery, London, and since then he has exhibited regularly in solo shows throughout the UK and more recently in the United States. His work has also been included in many group exhibitions since 1953, and in 2001, he was given the honour of being the featured artist in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, with an entire gallery within the show being dedicated to his work.

Cuming has devoted his life to expressing the fleeting impressions of his surroundings, often painting the South Coast of England around Hastings, Camber and Rye. His work is about responses to the moods and atmospheres generated by landscape, still life or interior. He is interested in the developments of 20th-century painting, in abstraction, that has been present in all movements and in new ideas and art forms. He has been inspired by masters of colour such as J.M.W. Turner, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and Paul Nash. Cuming’s major subject is how to use colour and light in his painting to represent the natural world.

Fred Cuming is a vital part of the English landscape painting tradition. He has always been fascinated by the changing landscape around us: the skies, fabulous rainbows and wonderful rapid violent storms.

The exhibition marks the next step on the journey of Bridgepoint, the new creative multi-genre arts centre in Rye. While the permanent site is being developed, a pop-up arts centre hosts exhibitions, events and artists residencies this year.

Co-founder and executive producer Sarah Kowitz “aims to support a residency programme of innovative world-class artists across numerous disciplines and hopes that if planning permission is granted for the development, it will create a flourishing community of exceptional talent and encourage a migration of arts, which will continue the drive towards coastal regeneration”.

Other Bridgepoint Rye upcoming events include the Hastings Tapestry exhibition which will be open to the public on September 14-15 and October 13-14, Bespoke Embroidery Class, based on Hastings Embroidery, on Saturday September 14, Bridgepoint Mass Dance, free family-friendly event led by Lynne Page, on Saturday September 28 and Joe Sweeney, Film Screening and Q&A on Saturday September 28.

The Cuming exhibition will run from Saturday September 14 until Saturday September 28, from 1pm to 3pm daily and 11am to 2pm weekends, at Bridgepoint Rye, Rock Channel via St. Margaret’s Terrace, TN31 7DE. (Limited Disabled Parking only). Visitor parking is at Gibbets Marsh, 38 Udimore Road, Rye TN31 7DS) and an eight-minute walk from Bridgepoint. There are regular bus and train services between Hastings and Rye.

Image Credits: Bridgepoint .

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