Stroud Green allotment artist Patrick Cullen to show at Highgate Gallery

Published: 7 May 2010
by PETER GRUNER

STROUD Green artist Patrick Cullen is as happy capturing the sweeping landscape of his allotment near Alexandra Palace as he is the colours of a Tuscan vineyard.

His new exhibition, Landscapes, will include more than 30 new paintings when it opens at the Highgate Gallery today (Friday).

Patrick who has had his allotment at Shepherds Hill for 25 years, said: “We grow artichokes and various vegetables. I find gardening very relaxing. It gets me away from the pressure of painting where you have to keep relatively still for hours.”

He says he enjoys painting his vegetable patch just as much as an Italian hillside. 

“Most people would say the two locations have nothing in common,” he said. “But I always find connections. The patternings of vegetation are very similar even if the weather in north London doesn’t always compare with Tuscany.”

Patrick trained at St Martin’s and Camberwell art colleges in the 1970s. He has won a number of awards including the Watercolour Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. 

His paintings are in many collections, including the Royal Academy and Sheffield Art Gallery.     Prices for his work range from £500 to £4,000.

• Patrick Cullen: Landscapes is at Highgate Gallery, Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute, 11 South Grove, Highgate, N6, until May 20, 11am-4pm, 020 8340 3343