In Conversation With Alec Cumming

We caught up with long-time Print Club artist Alec Cumming to talk about his latest exclusive collection. From sun-soaked memories to studio routines, Alec shares the stories, influences, and creative process behind this vibrant new body of work. Dive into the conversation and get a closer look at what shapes his bold, expressive paintings.

To start, can you tell us the title of your latest collection and what inspired it?

This new series ‘longest time basking’ has links to a group of gouaches I made in Sri Lanka a couple of years ago. On this trip I began to use green more intensely for the first time as well as focussing more on a lightness within the work and adding more space within the compositions.

What initially sparked the idea for this body of work? Was there a specific moment, place, or experience that set things in motion?

Although I don’t see these paintings as directly about Sri Lanka, I can see the essence and energy of my work on the residency sits within them. I tend to take months or years to process how these ideas filter into one of my pieces and these are impacted by them and other trips and memories since.

Your work often seems to balance bold colour with loose abstraction and a sense of place — what were the key visual or emotional references you were working from this time?

I wanted these works to have a crispness about them, to feel like the moment they do to me when they are just completed. This is a feeling of ‘laying the last brush mark’, at this point I feel as though the painting comes to focus. As if all the parts come together for a very fleeting moment and the painting captures that moment. This could be something like waking up in a hot country and having the light hit your face, that split second where you realise where you are might be out of the ordinary or exactly ordinary. That’s the moment I want to capture.

Could you share a bit about your studio setup? Where are you currently based, and how does your environment influence your process?

My studio is based in Norfolk, around 30 minutes from Norwich in the countryside. It’s a really calm and peaceful space and I’ve been there for about 8 years. I really enjoy the drive to the studio, for me it’s a great way to begin my day, clearing my head on the drive and starting my creative practice.

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you? Do you follow a structured routine or is it more intuitive?

I paint most days, usually for 5-6 hours, sometimes more. At the start of the day I’ll make a coffee and look at the work from the previous day and think about my next move. I don’t work on one piece at a time, I tend to work on multiple pieces at once. This is for two reasons, one the medium, oil paint needs to dry before new layers can be painted, The second reason is I like to sit with my paintings, often playing out the painting in my head.

Your work often bridges a dialogue between cultures and environments — is that something you consciously explore, or does it evolve more organically?

I have always been fascinated by travelling and exploring new places. These places reflect into my paintings, forms and shapes from across the world can turn up from images drawn and notes, even photos I take whilst I’m away. When I get back to the studio I use these memories, drawings, notes and images to create new forms from. They might not be about a specific place or moment but an amalgamation of all of these creating a pan-global dialogue of formations within my work.

Who are some of your key influences — whether artists, movements, or even writers or musicians — that continue to shape your practice?

I lived in India for several years and whilst I was there I became fascinated with Indian Miniature paintings. I loved seeing the narratives within these works and the compositions, perspectives and lines of sight. Also whilst I was in India I was inspired by the works of KG Subramanyan.

Closer to home I’ve always loved how Hockney uses light, colour and space with honesty and Rose Wylie’s playful narratives.

You have collectors across the UK and internationally — can you tell us a bit about the relationship between your work and the people who collect it? Do you hear from them about how they connect to the pieces?

People have so many different interpretations of my work and their reasons for collecting it differ from person to person. One of the main things I always want them to gain is seeing their own way through the paintings, when they look at the painting they bring their own memories and sensations of where they’ve been. I want them to say ‘oh that reminds me of X’, to have a sense of familiarity within the unfamiliar. In that sense they are really a shared experience for both me as the painter and them as the viewer.

Are there recurring themes or motifs that you find yourself returning to? What draws you back to them?

I want my paintings to symbolise that moment when you wake up from sleeping beside a pool in a hot country, those seconds that happen before your eyes can really focus and the light and the heat take over everything. The themes and motifs become a sort of painted language using that as the decoder. You might see symbols returning, like sun baked earth, drinks laden tables poolside, or palm trees disappearing off into the distance, but all these are to be perceived by the viewer through their own journey through the work, each viewer can interpret them differently and add their own narrative to the work. 

What would you say this collection represents in terms of your overall artistic journey — is it a continuation, a departure, or something else entirely?

In many ways this work is a continuation of themes that run through all of my work. But equally there was a really exciting opportunity with this new body of work to play with some themes that have been turning around in my head for a while, launching off from where the Gouaches and becoming more.

Looking ahead, is there anything you’re excited to explore next, either thematically or in terms of medium or scale?

There’s always a great excitement to see where the work will go and one of the things I have always done is let the paintings develop at their own pace. Next year I’m looking forward to spending more time in Cyprus where I work with a gallery over there and seeing how this further impacts my work. But equally on the complete opposite end of the scale I’ve really been enjoying spending time in England and visiting places like Northumbria and Wiltshire, so I look forward to digging into how spending more time here in England will develop my work too.

July 2025