Tim Cumming

Poet, music journalist, film maker and painter Tim Cumming showed his paintings here in our Winter Show from 23 November 2013. His will be a unique exhibition of Moroccan and West Country landscapes shown alongside his own poems.

Tim Cumming Poetry Reading with Three Cane Whale Saturday 18 January, 7pm. A powerful performer, Tim Cumming read and talked about his poems and paintings with the exceptional multi-instrumental trio, Three Cane Whale.  Performing separately and in collaboration, with additional special guests, this was a memorable evening. More…

Tim Cumming was born in Father Hudson’s Children’s Home in Solihull in the West Midlands in 1963 and was brought up in rural Dorset. He has lived in London since 1982.  Between 1987 and 1990 he worked at The Karsten Schubert Gallery with many of the figures who were part of the Frieze generation of BritArtists.

Tim received his training in painting and drawing from his father, Peter Cumming, who was Head of Department at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art, and his mother Mary, a professional embroiderer. His one solo show was in Shaftesbury, Dorset, when he was eighteen. He has since become a widely published poet and arts and music journalist, for The Independent among other publications, as well as a filmmaker. His paintings are in numerous private collections and have been exhibited at the 63a Gallery in Kingston, South West London and at the Rowley Gallery, Kensington. His pamphlet, Etruscan Miniatures, comprising twelve poems and six paintings of the landscape around Orvieto in Umbria, was published by the Sidney based press Pitt Street Poetry in May 2012. See Tim’s paintings below.

Racedown from Pilsdon Pen by Tim Cumming

Racedown from Pilsdon Pen

into Marshwood Vale, the river bank’s

calligraphic flourish through grassy birdlands

and there at the gate where Samuel spied

William and Dorothy at work in their garden

laying down the line

and both remember him crashing towards them

some 40 years on, advancing heavily into the corn

like a sacrificial victim, mouth on fire with realised

dreams before the ancient mariner of nightmares

and long winter.

And here we come leaping

over the stile, through the young green corn

and wild hedgerow honeysuckle, orchids in a meadow

by the gate from the road and the wild secret world

of Dorset aurochs stirring from the wall, shrugging off

the isobars of warmth and glaciation, sliding their weight

between them, beasts of monumental grasses you could

cast like milky brasses

as we come bounding by,

down the folds and thighs of the valleylands

around Racedown, strangers at the stile.

Tell them we are coming.

Tell them we have not grown old.

Tim Cumming’s paintings can be viewed below.  Hover over an image for titles and details, or click to enlarge.  Please phone 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk to buy or enquire about Tim’s work.