Students and customers often ask who frames my paintings and prints. I always have them framed by the Framehouse, Consett, and they are helpful, professional and reliable - a superb service.

 

This is a really interesting blog about the beautiful and historic village of Blanchland. Janice Hutchinson of Jaspah Crewe wrote the blog, copied below. Jaspah Crewe is a shop beside the White Monk Tearoom, just across from the Lord Crewe Arms. Jaspah Crewe stocks my paintings, prints and books and is an eclectic emporium of arts, jewellery, glass, ceramics and cards.

 

 

The picturesque village of Blanchland (above), set in the glorious landscape of the North Pennines, grew out of Blanchland Abbey and takes its name from the monks’ white habits.

Not Persil-white, apparently; a 15th-century report rebuked the monks for drinking too much beer and told them to get proper haircuts and employ a washerwoman.

 

Today, this greatly loved village is so picture-perfect that TV aerials are banned. Hence its appeal as a film location in period dramas, including Catherine Cookson TV adaptations and the movie Jude, starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. Recently used in the filming of VERA with Brenda Blethyn. 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw this painting in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh and I looked at it on the gallery wall for a full half hour. The light is superb. You can see the oil that she's cooking the eggs in, and sense it bubbling as you look at the painting. 

 

 

Essentially, what I aim to do when I paint, is to paint light on surface, and that is what Velazquez has achieved here. It's an extraordinary piece of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t detect paint when I look at Ivan Shishkin’s work, I detect light. The care he has taken is phenomenal. Like Andrew Wyeth, Shishkin could paint light on surfaces beautifully.

 

 

I discovered Shishkin’s work after creating my etching ‘The Pathway’ – and he had been making forest etchings almost 200 years earlier – he was a Russian Itinerant Artist. His work is well crafted and has real integrity and authenticity and the detail he excelled in helped to influence my own paintings, such as ‘Rhododendron’ and ‘Plantation Pathway.’

There’s a certain poignancy to Andrew Wyeth’s work that draws me to it. He’s a supreme technician, working in watercolour and tempura. He can capture the ephemeral fragility of a scene in one frozen moment.

 

 

Wyeth will spend a long time at certain locations. I love how he sees a building, or the movement of a breeze, and how he puts his paintings together. I discovered him at art school and his work still resonates with me.

I am holding a celebration sale, as it’s four years this month since I picked up the keys to the gallery, and I am celebrating Father's Day too. I have had great support in this time from Alison, family, friends, students and neighbours and the gallery is developing still.

 

From now until 25 June, ALL of my originals and prints are reduced by 20%, so, for example, the original ‘Chamba’ will be reduced from £1 450 to £1 160. 

 

 

(Please call/text ‪07968 990552‬ to order and we will discount the price on the website for you. Some prints may take a week to arrive from being ordered.)

 

Chamba >> http://www.paulstangroom.co.uk/originals/the-himalayan-collection/paul-stangroom-chamba-c18363d183129.html

Gallery visitors are often curious about the garden behind the building, and Alison and I spend a lot of time there. Alison tends to the flowers and I look after the vegetables, berries and the greenhouse. This May has been perfect for sitting outside in the evenings, and my art students occasionally sit out on the patio too, in their breaks. I've had to relearn the mechanics of running a greenhouse and em enjoying growing so much of our own food from the garden.

 

We grow flowers, chives, mint, rosemary, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, gooseberries, blackcurrants and much more from the sunny plot and also have a variety of seating areas to catch the best light. Sometimes on quiet Sundays, I leave a 'Working in the Garden' sign on the gallery door, and visitors can seek me out there.