Building a Picture
From the first moment of noticing…
a place.. a group of people…
“Painting Glass” Stained Glass workshop. 2001
1st Stage
I went on a beginners weekend course at the Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral. The Museum is one storey up along the South side of the nave. At the end a door leads into the Workshop, which overlooks the South Transept. The light was wonderful and the view amazing! and for a while a choir rehearsed down below.
I wasn’t good at the glass cutting, it kept breaking in the wrong place. To calm down I looked at the space, the people, the windows, before trying the cutting again.
2nd Stage
When I came home I knew I wanted to make a painting, it was such a visual experience.
I drew the figures quickly from memory. In my mind I see them as though I am a foot or two above.
“Glass Painting”
(figures from memory)
“Watching”
(figures from memory)
3rd Stage
The following week the Museum allowed me to return and sketch it all, the machinery, the workshop, the windows. . .
“Workshop Sketch”
4th Stage
The next step is to photocopy the sketches, using these to make a collage. The photocopies can be shrunk or expanded as needed in the collage. Having drawn exact measured elevations in my engineering world, I take pleasure in playing with perspective.
5th Stage
The collage is then traced to simplify the shapes and give fluidity to the lines.
“Collage”
“Traced Image”
6th Stage
On the reverse of the tracing I draw the “swish” lines. These lines unite the layout, and help the eye to move around the image. The “swish” lines are remnants of the abstract horizon studies I made years before. ( See “Developement as a Painter”)
7th Stage
The last step before I paint is to plan the colours. On a smaller photocopy I work out the colours using Derwent Crayons. This is helpful since the image is large and complicated. It is used as a guide only.
It is necessary because I work in Acrylic. With this paint a wash dries as a skin, and washes added on top do not disturb the lower layers. The negative side to this is that a mistake cannot be removed.
“Colour Plan”
8th Stage. The final Painting
a) Tracing
I trace the image onto Bockingford Paper using my old engineering pen and brown ink.
b) Stretching the paper
The paper is soaked for 10 minutes to expand. It is then smoothed onto a large heavy white-painted board. Here it is attached with waterbased tape (Butterfly Tape), and as it dries it shrinks and is tight like a drum.
c) Painting
When it is dry I paint very swiftly, with Acrylic washes. I try to give each area of paint a gradual change in tone or colour. Painting quickly , air gaps are often left around images, giving a lightness of touch.
I use the Colour Plan as a guide, but changes always happen.
d) Balancing Up
Once the first layers of paint are dry, I can put a darker wash over a whole area, without affecting the paint below. In this way I can make some areas receed, which enhances other areas. I can also shade along the “swish” lines, which carry the eye around the image.
e) Finished and Framed
The painting is finished when I come across it by chance, (having balanced it somewhere in the house), and my eye goes to where I want it to!
The painting is cut off the board, put in a protective mount, ready to be signed and framed.
“Painting Glass” Stained Glass workshop. 2001