About me
I spent the first 18 years of my life on the coast of West Sussex and Hampshire and very early on developed an abiding passionfor Art and Nature.
Winter evenings were spent in my grandparents room copying my uncle's drawings or sketching any item of interest, come summer many hours were spent around the marshes of Chichester Harbour or in the woodland on the South Downs studying, drawing and painting the landscape and its wildlife. Upon leaving school I secured a place a the West Sussex College of Art in Worthing, studying Commercial Art and technical illustration, to cbecome a commercial artist mean't that you had to be able to draw any subject accurately.
Stephen Cummins born Emsworth Hampshire 1943
Whilst traveling to College each day by train I was fascinated by the prints of Landscape paintings mounted below the luggage racks, you could sit in comfort and drift to unknown places. The hills of Cumbria, the lakes, costal resorts, cathedrals all painted by prominent figurative artists, some self proclaimed art critic of today would decry illustration or illustrative Art as meaningless and not real Art. It's just as well that attitude did not exist when the Sistine Chapel ceiling was commissioned as an illustration of the Bible!
Upon leaving College I worked as a technical illustrator for many years but at night painted a variety of subjects, Vintage racing cars, Landscapes, Seascapes, Abstract painting.
Moving to Cornwall in 1972 art became a spare time hobby as I managed a variety of businesses. Exploring Cornwall from Rocky moors to towering cliffs, green shaded valleys and stormy seas and the influence of the light with it's ever changing moods came as a revelation, an inspiration for my appetite to paint, this small peninsular of land afloat on a mirror of sea reflecting light in a manner new to me.
In 1990 after a health scare I like many others before me suddenly arrived at on of lifes crossroads and took the decision to become a full time artist. Within 2 years I had agreed to work with an agent whilst building a reputation as a Wildlife and Marine Artist.
For me Art and in my case painting is about communication, to present whatever I paint in such a way as to hold the viewers attention, for them to see what I see, in a new light, feel emotion whether positive or negative, a great photographer friend of mine once said to me
"The worst response I can have to my work is no response at all."
Whilst continueing to paint wildlife, etc. in a figurative manner I have recently become absorbed with trying to portray the limitless variations of land & seascapes and it's moods in smaller impressionist paintings in Acrylic and Oil paint.