Royal Terrace

This is a great address isn't it? I just recently helped to install this entryway by Brian Waugh. This is a total height of more than 3 metres. Brian presents a night scene - a very unusual theme for any entry. But as an entry for a day spa, it has the appropriate calmness.

Brian is in the process of developing a website and when completed will be able to show much more of his painting and stained glass works.

Tuscany

I was asked a few months ago to create a side light. After discussions it was decided that it should be an image that reflected some aspects of the Tuscany area of Italy. It was also requested that light colours be used to allow lots of light to continue to come into the hallway. Other requirements were for fields of sunflowers and poppies along with a Tuscan style house with smoke coming from the chimney.

This was a difficult set of requirements to fill. First, the opening was a little over 12 inches wide and 66 inches tall. It also is to be placed in a double glazed unit for installation. This was an advantage as the piece would not require glazing bars to stabilise it, even though turning the panel during construction would still be difficult.

The Internet is so useful in these kinds of situations. I have never been in Tuscany, but I could look at pictures of Tuscany and get ideas of the countryside without leaving my chair. This meant that I could use a composite of images to create my own interpretation. Estate agents in Tuscany have taken to promoting houses for sale over the Internet and in English. This allowed me to get an idea of country houses in the area and create a terracotta roofed house for the clients.

The poppy fields were created by etching away the red glass flashed on a green base. You can see these at the bottom right and two thirds up on the right. The fields of sunflowers were created by using brown and green paints on a yellow glass. The trees lining the road were also painted to give some idea of the variegation of the tree foliage.

The whole is, of course, graphic rather than realistic. It does convey the hilly nature of the terrain and the brightness of the countryside.

This is now in the glaziers shop being put into a double glazing unit and will then be installed in the house in Dunoon.

Ship

After a long absence from the blog, I return. It is not that I have been doing nothing, just that there is lots to do in the rest of my life too. Family changes, new caravan, visiting other studios during the Spring Fling, etc.

But things have been happening in the studio too. Last winter I was asked to consider doing a ship for a person who has recently celebrated his 80th birthday. He was part of the RNVR just at the beginning of the Second World War. Both he and his wife felt a sailing ship would be a suitable piece for their house.

Of course he did not go to war in a ship like this, but felt this kind of ship gives a notion of the freedom within the constraints of the sea that you can get in any vessel.


This was completed with deep sand carving, area etching and shading. It is fixed to a mahogany base and will be screwed to the sill.