Fred Cuming RA: Portrait of an Artist (2015)

This is the first episode of a proposed series of mini Documentaries dedicated to the members of the Royal Academy of Arts. The concept of the series is the portrait of the artist as a prism, standing in the middle between the natural world and the one of ideas, selecting which elements of reality to filter out and which ones to depict on paper, canvas, film, metal, or other. The depiction is as distorted or altered as his/her personal life dictates. The film consists of 3 parts following the concept. Part one is the environment of the artist, his/her neighborhood, house and family. Part two is the artist himself, his/her works, studio and inspirations. Part 3 is the world of ideas, the thoughts and reflections of reality on the works. "Camber Sands on the coast beyond Rye is one of my favorite locations," says painter Fred Cuming RA. "In summer, the beach can be crowded with holidaymakers. On other days, I might be the only person in miles of open space - it provides me with endlessly fascinating problems of conveying something which is about nothing more than emptiness."