Stephen Tromans

I have had a career in environmental and energy law, a new field when I began to take an interest in it, forty years ago.

I have three types of work in this exhibition. Whatever the subject, my aim is to produce a work which succeeds in transporting the viewer, however transiently, into a different place or time.  The focus is as much on what is experienced as on what is observed.

The first is a series entitled “Old Boozers”, which could refer either to the establishment or its patrons.  I grew up in the Black Country in the 1960s and early 70s.  There were many pubs, very far from the smart establishments of the 2020s.  This is my homage to the pubs and people of that era.  I have tried mainly to capture character and in the process tell a story.

Secondly, there is a series “Elegy for Hong Kong”.  As a young professional lawyer I began visiting Hong Kong in the early 1990s in connection with some major waste management projects.  I was immediately captivated by the character of the city, with its vibrant street life and imposing harbour. Exploring places like Pedder Street, Western Market, the Star Ferry and Kowloon made an enduring impression, which I have tried to celebrate here, using collage and mixed media to try and convey the bewildering and vital street scenes, with their incessant movement.

Thirdly, I have always loved and been challenged to paint remote, wild and mysterious places – what Turner would have known as “the Sublime”. The challenge is to show them as the extraordinary places they are.

All proceeds from the sale of my work will go the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.