Microstrip Patch Antennas (MPA) and arrays have various advantages such as low profile, conformable to any configuration, robust when mounted on rigid surfaces and ease of fabrication. They play a very significant role as they are used in various communication applications. In this work, a single microstrip patch antenna is first designed and extended to a 1x2 patch array for gain enhancement. In any array configuration, half wavelength separation between the elements is maintained for mutual coupling reduction and grating lobes suppression. In an application where space is a constraint, maintaining a 0.51λ distance may not be practical. The reduction in spacing between the elements increases mutual coupling which in turn reduces the gain and efficiency of the array system. This coupling could be reduced by various techniques. In this paper, the design of a 1x2 microstrip patch array with metamaterial is carried out for mutual coupling reduction between the closely spaced antenna elements. The edge-to-edge distance between the antenna elements is considered as 0.21λ for the analysis. The metamaterial structures are artificially designed materials which exhibit negative permittivity and permeability. The diagonally truncated split ring resonator is used as a metamaterial unit cell. Six such unit cells are joined together to form an array. Two such arrays are placed between the patch elements to reduce the mutual coupling to an extent of 4dB. Further to enhance the gain of compact array, a polypropylene hemispherical dielectric lens is used. The gain enhancement of 3dB is observed with the lens. The array structure with metamaterial and dielectric lens developed in this paper serves a purpose of mutual coupling reduction, compactness and gain enhancement. This will greatly benefit various applications in the C-Band range of frequencies.