Patrick Cullen is well known for his atmospheric landscapes of Southern Europe, shown in all seasons and weathers, and especially those of Tuscany, the South of France and Andalucía. Over the last 20 years or so, he has also developed a reputation for highly evocative scenes of India, which focus on the life of its streets, markets and riverbanks. In addition, he is a perceptive portraitist.
Patrick Cullen was born in Addlestone, Surrey, on 8 August 1949, the third of the six children of Peter Cullen, who worked for the family grocery business, and his wife, Jane (née Greener). He showed an interest in art from early childhood, and was encouraged by his mother, who herself had a talent for drawing and painting. She was the great-niece of E B S Montefiore, a painter of rural and farmyard scenes, many of whose canvases hung in the family home while Patrick was growing up.
He won a number of prizes for art while at school and, on graduating from the University of Bristol, where he read politics and sociology, he decided to concentrate on painting. So he went to London to study at St Martin's School of Art (1972-73), and then at Camberwell School of Art (1973-76), where his teachers included Christopher Chamberlain, Anthony Eyton and Dick Lee.
While being strongly attracted to landscape painting, Patrick demonstrated his versatility in his early solo shows by including examples of other subjects, notably self-portraits and interior scenes. He held his first solo shows at the Ogle Gallery, Eastbourne, in 1978, and Amalgam Art Ltd, Barnes, London, in 1979 (the first of three at that venue). In 1979, he also began to contribute works to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, including scenes of allotments, which would become a favourite subject. From this early stage in his career, he was already working with equal success in oil, pastel and watercolour, and, in 1981, held a solo show of watercolours at the Off Centre Gallery in Islington. In 1983, he married the composer and musician, Sally Davies. They settled in Finsbury Park, and have two daughters.
Patrick has won a number of major prizes, beginning with the Greater London Council's painting competition, 'The Spirit of London', in 1984, and the Watercolour Prize of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, in 1989, for The Offices of Beale and Company. The second of these prizes enabled him to travel to Italy, where he responded particularly to the landscape of Tuscany, which inspired paintings that have proved central to his developing vision. In time, he also began to make painting trips to Southern France and Andalucía, the latter offering rougher, more mountainous subject matter. In 1987, Patrick began to exhibit at the Thackeray Gallery, and between 1992 and 2005 held seven solo shows there. During that time, he also held two solo shows at the Jane Neville Gallery, Aslockton, Nottinghamshire (1999, 2002). In 1990, Patrick was elected to the Pastel Society, and exhibited annually in its shows until 2004, when he ceased to be a member. During that time, he won the society's premier award, the Daler-Rowney Prize, on three occasions, in 1990, 1995 and 2000. Since 1991, Patrick has exhibited at open exhibitions of the Royal Watercolour Society, and his contributions have won him the Abbott and Holder Travel Award (1991) and the Royal Watercolour Society Award (2004). Exhibiting with the New English Art Club from 1995, Patrick was elected as a member in 1997. Since then, he has won the Kathleen Tronson Award and the Jan Ondaatje Rolls Prize (both 2001), the Minto Prize (2003) and the Critics' Prize (2016), the last for the watercolour, The Burning Ghat, Dusk, Varanasi. For most of the years between 1996 and 2013, Patrick demonstrated his skills as a painter at the annual event, ‘Art in Action’, held at Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire.
In 1997, Patrick was one of 15 artists, including Ken Howard, to receive an invitation from the Jewish National Fund and the Linda Blackstone Gallery, Pinner, to paint in Israel, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the state. The results were exhibited in the following year in 'Israel at 50 – Artistic Impressions', held at the Linda Blackstone Gallery and then at the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. By the turn of the century, Patrick had established a strong reputation as a painter, and especially for his landscapes of Southern Europe. Then, in 2002, he received an invitation from his fellow painter, Tim Scott Bolton, and his wife, Tricia, to join one of their painting trips to Rajasthan. This led him to make more than a dozen trips alone to India to draw and paint in the streets and markets of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These culminated in solo shows at Indar Pastricha Fine Arts, London, in 2010, 2013 and 2016. In addition, he travelled to India in the company of fellow painters, first Ken Howard and Robert King, and then Peter Brown, Ken Howard and Neale Worley (the last of whom filmed and photographed the trip). The second of those joint trips led to a four man show at Indar Pastricha Fine Arts in October 2015. Other solo shows during this period include those at the Summerleaze Gallery, East Knoyle, Wiltshire (2006, 2017); the New Grafton Gallery, London (2007); the London Centre for Psychotherapy (2008); the Highgate Gallery, London (2010, 2015), and the Russell Gallery, London (2017).
In 2010, Patrick was elected to the Chelsea Art Society and, two years later, won its Painting Prize. Between 2012 and 2016, Patrick exhibited with the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, and won the Runners-Up Prize in 2015 (again for the watercolour, The Burning Ghat, Dusk, Varanasi). In 2019, Patrick was invited by Tim Scott Bolton to join him on a painting trip to Nepal, in his belief that Patrick should be painting mountains. They were joined by fellow painter, Tobit Roche, and the cameraman, Jack Hextall, who was engaged to film the trip. The resulting paintings and drawings by all three artists, and the film made by Jack Hextall, were shown at the exhibition, 'Out of Thin Air', held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, in September 2021.
Patrick held his first solo show at Chris Beetles Gallery in November 2021, featuring over 70 artworks from his travels. He has since continued to exhibit with the Chelsea Art Society, Royal Watercolour Society and the New English Art Club. Following his election as President of the NEAC in July 2023, we are proud to present his second solo show at the gallery of his recent works in June 2024.
