Patterns in a Dorset Church

I was slightly worried about the way that I had shoved my three Kelmscott designs together in The New Brewery Arts Exhibition (see my last post), but after my visit to The Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul in Cattistock, Dorset I realise that I could have gone further with my display.  The baptistry under the tower was designed by Gilbert Scott and decorated in 1901 probably by W.O. & C. Powell. It's a small space filled with patterns, texts and images with no spare space between them. I was particularly taken with one design, used in two different colourways, my drawings of this repeat pattern are shown below right.

Interior of the baptistry at Cattistock Parish Church

I was really there to visit this small, rich Morris window from 1882. The colours are strong and the design is clear, facing the porch this window is immediately more eye-catching than any of the others although they are all filled with interesting stained glass of different types. The detail that I picked out here is the depiction of the wooden surface of the angel's zither - ways of showing wood grain on glass is something that I've played around with too.

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My glass painting "Slice through Yew Tree" 2007 (click to enlarge)

White Windows

Signatures panel in progress                                                    Two screens by Louis Barillet

When I was making the signatures panel border, made of recycled white glass, a visitor mentioned the work of Louis Barillet from the 1930s. When I saw his screens I could see the link. Now I am finding windows made of different types of textured white and clear glass everywhere.

National Portrait Gallery entrance                  Tate Britain : original window & detail from the new panel by Richard Wright (2013)

There is a row of four white windows in the entrance of the National Portrait Gallery, and many examples of the genre in the newly refurbished Millbank Entrance of Tate Britain. When the building opened in 1898 there were two of these clear decorative windows, one was subsequently removed and a new leaded window by Richard Wright has been commissioned in its place. This window has the simplicity that I have noticed in so many stained glass windows designed by artists - from Henri Matisse to Gerhard Richter. I am reminded of the comments I got at college when I made my stained glass pictures; "the material is so beautiful you should let it speak for itself". I always wanted to do some of the speaking myself - the windows I really love bring a bit more personality into the buildings they inhabit.

Windows on the stairs to the members' room: windows inside the room with many textures and a wide bevel on the larger panes.

Return to Kelmscott

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The Thames at Kelmscott, click on the photos to enlarge them

I knew that Kelmscott would be even more beautiful in winter, and in the afternoon sunlight yesterday I took enough photographs to do a blog entry twice this length. 

The staff loo : from outside above, from inside below.

I've never thought it would be appropriate to install any of my work in the fabric of Kelmscott Manor, but I wanted to leave some pieces behind as "visitors" to the house. The signatures panel fitted in the staff loo with its fixings hardly visible.  We removed the curtain to reveal a view of the River Thames - if you peer through the transparent parts - and coloured light flooded on to the opposite wall.

The panels that 18 Kelmscott volunteers & 1 staff member helped make on a day of workshops in October happened to fit in the kitchen windows. They slide between the leaded casements and the steel window supports in a way that is so effortless I couldn't have planned it. Here, the colours are so bright that their reflection glows even on the dark tiles and work surface.

In the staff kitchen