Broken Glass and blood on fingers
When you look at the stained glass window you often do not realise how much glass has to be cut to create the pattern. All that glass means all those chances to cut stab and basically damage your hands and fingers. After a holiday Matthews fingers are much softer and the small cuts have healed and his hands look good. A week back and even as though he does not make every window, his fingers start to get rough and shaved by glass again. It is not just his fingers that get caught. Several pairs of trousers have cut slices across the thigh as large panels of glass are balanced on the legs as they are passed from place to place in the studio. All this is before he gets home. Somehow he attracts broken glass. Glasses, bowls anything that it is possible to break. The best was the last teapot he broke. The teapot was dropped in the china sink and managed to break like an egg across its middle! It was not just the teapot it was the lid as well, now that is just magic. You would think that someone working with glass would be more careful, we just believe that glasses wait for him so that they can really break, shatter and cause a real mess!
Holiday or renewel…
Ahh it is August and we all run for the hills, or in our case off to the Il de Re an island on the Atlantic coast of France. After we have lasted the first day with the constant reference to the phone and email, just to check how things are going at home and at the studio, then we start to relax. Then one day, a rainy morning, out came paint and paper and the stained glass man was off. First a sketch then suddenly he was inspired and the professional raised its head. A new photo was needed, paper was now taped to the table, and a much more exact pencil sketch was made. Then on to the watercolour to express the feeling of space, sky, wind and weather. This is a place of long vistas as the wind blows across the low-lying land. the sea, sky and inland salt marches give a feeling of openness, and even exposure. As an artist who runs a business this time to draw and paint is a time of regrowth and repair. To practice those skills that are used everyday just for your own use, no stress, no time constraint, just a piece of paper.
Image by Chris Coles
