Member since Friday 23rd May, 2014
My father, Lawrence Stangroom, was an artist/ illustrator - and a huge influence in my life. I have been painting for as long as I can remember. From an early age, my father ‘Lawrie’ showed me the traditional techniques he had learned at art school. Later, I realised how highly regarded he was among his peers and how lucky I am to have had a thorough grounding in traditional methods from such a talented man.
Growing up in Washington, Tyne and Wear, I watched small villages, based around the coalmines and surrounded by woods and farms, being torn down or in-filled with factories. It made me acutely aware of how quickly we can lose things that I consider to be of real value. This has affected me tremendously and therefore the kinds of things I paint. Well-built homes were demolished, replaced in many cases with so-called ‘modern’ houses and apartments often called, 'shoe boxes with windows'. The surrounding countryside was transformed into a ‘New Town'. Land and farms were lost forever, replaced by motorways and shopping malls. While I watched the landscape around me alter, my parents took us on trips to the moors and dales of the North Pennines and the highlands of Scotland. I was drawn to the wild, remote parts of these landscapes.
‘A’ levels and art school occupied the next six years, and I spent time in London and Sunderland. During this time, l explored different mediums and techniques, particularly silkscreen and etching. The themes of buildings, loss and change were significant to the images that I was making.
The Himalayas had a huge impact on me during my first visit in 1980. I was in awe of the scale and grandeur of the mountains and the resilience, fortitude and hospitality of the local people. This was the start of my Himalayan series. A bursary from The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in Canada allowed me to return to paint and explore for two years. I have been back to gather source material for my paintings many times since.
Moving to Northumberland rekindled my love of the moors and fells. At first, I was very interested in painting the wild open spaces but I have become increasingly interested in the abandoned, often derelict small farms and cottages that I come across while wandering the fells. Wherever one travels in the uplands of The Pennines, there is evidence of mining, although nature is reclaiming what remains.
I will never know the people who lived and worked in the farms, mines or quarries, but I find it very poignant to look out of the windows, seeing what they would have seen. Some houses have furniture left in them and this gives a very strong sense of the former inhabitants. Standing in the living rooms of some of these old homes with the cast iron range intact, I can only guess what day-to-day life was like. Questions arise in my mind about how many meals were cooked, how many births, deaths and marriages took place? Was it a happy home? I paint these places exactly as I find them, leaving others to imagine their own stories for the images. I try to create this sense of place as accurately and clearly as I can: my hope is that whoever looks at the paintings will be affected by the places in the same way. My paintings take time to create and often I will wait a number of years before I paint certain images, and yet I start others almost immediately, because of the strong impact they have on me.
In 2014, I realised a cherished ambition of having my own gallery. I have now turned a discarded shop unit into a fine art gallery, studio and home. There is nothing formal about my spacious gallery, which is open to welcome art-lovers as they browse my work. Take a look at my website on www.paulstangroom.co.uk to see more of my paintings and book.
