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Paul Stangroom Fine Art Gallery - and Other News
There is plenty to tell you in this, my first newsletter. I am in the midst of renovating my gallery at 45, Front Street, Prudhoe right now. We expect it to be open in the autumn, but if you are passing, please knock and say hello and you will be most welcome to take a look around with me and see my paintings and prints. In the meantime, I have a brand new website - same address as before, but with a brighter look.
As a working break from the renovations and my teaching in Hexham, I have just been to Correze, France. I smiled when I saw the image selected to promote my teaching across in France - a Teesdale icon and a personal favourite - High Force. My new website has a blog, if you'd like to read more news. And, aside from the gallery and my travels, I have new work available too.
'High Force,' £150, 530 x 735mm, Limited Edition Print Run of 100, Digital Print, Signed and Numbered by the Artist. Prints are normally Mounted, Backed and Cellophane Wrapped, unless you Specify Otherwise. Unframed
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Renovating the gallery has not stopped me from moving forward with new originals this spring. This Windows painting above is now available as a print - the original has sold. Initially, I was going to call it 'The Three Chairs,' but then my friend and poet, Noel Connor said, 'That has got to be "The Swallows' Nest" ' and if you look up to the top centre of the image, I'm sure you will agree. This house is in the middle of Weardale, near Westgate. As with all of my paintings, I resisted the temptation to 'improve' what I found, as the scene was rich in detail already. The original sold before I finished it and I have just ordered the prints.
'The Swallows' Nest,' £150, 530 x 740mm Approx, Limited Edition Print Run of 100, Digital Print, Signed and Numbered by the Artist. Prints are normally Mounted, Backed and Cellophane Wrapped, unless you Specify Otherwise, Unframed
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Sipton Cleugh
I came upon this place on August Bank Holiday Monday and the heather was in full bloom. The colours of the heather are echoed in the water and on some of the foreground rocks. This could be caused by iron or peat in the water. The stream emerges from a narrow valley or 'cleugh' near Sparty Lea.
I was struck by the setting and the sense of peace of this place. I've been told that it looks like Cantale in France, near the Correze, where I was teaching.
‘Sipton Cleugh,’ Original - Watercolour on Paper, £2 900. Unframed.
Prints £125. Digital Print. Limited Edition Print Run of 100, 401 x 545 mm
Signed by the Artist
Prints are normally Mounted, Backed and Cellophane Wrapped, unless you Specify Otherwise
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Teaching in France - A Locked Library and an 'Addams Family' Window
Teaching in Correze held a few surprises for me this May. The teaching was the main purpose of the trip - my sixth visit to this beautiful area of France.
One of the highlights of my visit was that I got to stay in the stunning Chateau de Beaufort near to the salle polyvalente where I was teaching in La Roche-Canillac. With a swimming pool, lake nearby and an almost secret, locked library in its tower, it was a superb place to stay in and to explore - more of that in my website blog. I also got the opportunity to meet many people in the arts - and a gallery in Tulle has taken some of my originals and also Indian prints to show.
Another highlight was that I found a window near to the village that would be perfect for me to paint. I never change the interiors I discover, but I do take many photographs to ensure that both colour and light are ripe. This window, above left, from an old bakery, reminds me of the 1960s Addams Family TV series, it's so festooned in spiders’ webs. - a painting waiting to happen.
And the window on the right is an original from my 'Windows' series, with a story to tell all of its own. I am considering using this image for the signage in my new gallery in due course, as it reflects my own background and that of the North East.
'Pithead Grove Rake Mine,' 555 x 760mm, Watercolour on Paper, Unframed, Signed by the Artist, £3 900
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45 Front Street, Prudhoe
In 2014, I realised a life-long ambition of owning my own art gallery. Originally a family home, built in 1850, the building was later a confectioner’s and bakers. In 1903, Hall and Sons, painter and decorators, bought the building. And in 1960, it became a launderette.
When we took over, the washers had gone and the shell of the building was every bit as derelict as the tithe barns and old farmhouses I paint. Downstairs, the old washing machines, boiler and dryers had been removed and we were left with a derelict shell. Industrial-sized pipes dominated the walls. Plaster on the stone and brick walls was hacked off to make sure the fabric of the building was intact - and in some places it wasn’t!
My friend, the fine poet Noel Connor, wrote this poem about the renovation of 45 Front Street. I look forward to seeing you there.
45 Front Street
(1850 – 2014)
Stripped back to bare stone,
lintels, beams and motley brick
this building is telling you its story.
Taking you back, page by page
behind the crumbled plaster,
the lines of dry ribbed wooden lath,
chapter upon chapter of coated paint.
This wall, baked black
behind the long gone oven,
where the town’s small pleasures
swelled on shallow trays.
And the sweet smell of cinnamon and raisin,
cakes and caramel, wafted to the street,
lured the locals through the open door.
Up there by the ceiling, a new repair,
a patchwork of bricks and fresh mortar
where a shambles of vents and pipe work
cut crudely through the pointed sandstone.
Where the launderette’s pall of steam
was draughted and drawn to fresh air,
a soft detergent breath warming the outside wall.
At the corner of this gable end,
a decorator’s sheltered spot for cleaning up.
For decades the dregs from a thousand brushes
dragged across this crusty concrete,
the squeezed out residue of each day’s work.
Layer upon layer, old sores dried and barnacled,
cured to the colour of oyster shells.
Reclaim this space, fill these rooms again
with the scent of spice, new bread and heather honey,
the warm laundered air of freshly pressed and folded fabric,
the heady fumes of turpentine and paint.
Noel Connor
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- If you like Noel's poetry, you may enjoy reading our hardback book, 'In the Pause of Passing,' which is a superb introduction to my work and Noel's writing.
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- Paintings by Paul Stangroom, Poems by Noel Connor, £25 Plus P and P, 64 Pages Long, 260 x 325 mm. Introduction by Paul Stangroom, Forewords by Noel Connor, Anne Stevenson, Robert Picciotto and Tim Healy. First Edition of 1000 Copies. Published by Whin Sill Press
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