 In Florence she shared a villa with other artists, where she met her husband, fellow painting student Jamie Barker.Cumming’s work was informed by European and Australian predecessors such as Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Édouard Vuillard and Margaret Olley.In 1968, she returned to Australia and settled in Sydney.In 1969 she started teaching at East Sydney Technical College on a part time basis.