Serious waterfall

Left: Paintings in egg tempera & indian ink on gesso - Ray’s wall in the exhibition ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’. Right: ‘That’s not really a question is it, more of a statement’ by Ray Ward. 340 x 210 mm

Right in the middle of Ray’s wall in our exhibition at Norwich Cathedral was a painting entitled ‘That’s not really a question is it, more of a statement’ that I really liked and decided to make the subject of my next stained glass interpretation. In this picture most of the detail is in the landscape, the figures are small and melancholy and the man looks very much like my dad did in the 1970s.

Left: Glass piece on top of a copy of Ray’s painting. Right: Glass pieces painted, fired and sandblasted.

As I’ve progressed with these interpretations I’ve found that a limited and contrasting colour palette works best. In this panel I used dark colours for the background pieces around the bright, light figures with the tones getting lighter into the distance at the top of the waterfall. Once I’d chosen the glass and cut it, I laid the pieces on top of a copy of the painting (above left) and worked out how to proceed with the glass painting stage. The figures are easy, I just copy very directly from Ray’s drawing, but the translation of the landscape was something different and much harder to get right. My first attempts at the rocks looked laboured and scratchy, in the end I painted loosely and then sandblasted a zigzag white line. This device indicates what is a rock or not in a decorative way and also breaks up the greyness of the loose painting style. For the magnificent curtains of water I used a strong opalescent green glass that is quite impervious to painted detail, so the falling water is done with white enamel in sandblasted lines. Below you can see how different the finished panel looks in transmitted (left) and reflected light (right), in weak daylight you get something between the two. You can also see how I replaced the original pink sky - which completely ruined the effect I’d been wanting to achieve of the pink figures contrasting with everything else - with a pale lilac piece.

Left: panel in transmitted light. Right: panel in reflected light. 420 x 275 mm

Detail showing the top of the waterfall surrounded by rocks.

Left to right: ‘Moon Walk” ink drawing by Ray Ward, Glass pieces cut and sandblasted, Glass pieces painted, Stained glass panel completed.

My last stained glass interpretation of the year was a quick piece of a woman’s head in profile (above). We used the photo of the finished panel "‘Moon Walk’ for our christmas card, as it turned out her serious expression fitted the mood this year.

The Cloud of Unknowing

This is the poster for our exhibition at Norwich Cathedral, as you can see from the dates it has just finished. Despite the lower visitor numbers to the cathedral and the extra restrictions imposed during the second lockdown we felt lucky to be showing anywhere this year. The exhibition centred around a series of panels made during lockdown when I turned some of Ray’s drawings into stained glass. Although we have worked alongside each other for over thirty years, we have never collaborated or exhibited together before.

Wall of glass: Four cabinets of glass panels with samples and drawings on the lower shelves & two larger panels on easels.

The basic idea was to have a wall of Ray’s black and white paintings meeting a wall of my coloured glass panels. These panels were the ones I made during lockdown and will be familiar to readers of my blog. At the far end were the self portraits, at the near end were the collaborative pieces, and in the middle was the series of enamelled decorative panels called "‘Theme and Variations’. On the bottom shelves were enamelled samples from previous projects which showed up well just lying on white paper and on the shelves above were print outs of my blog entries which describe the making of my glass panels.

Cabinets 1&2: Self portraits, fragments, glass paints and the start of the Theme and Variations series.

Cabinets 2,3&4. Theme and Variations and the collaborative panels.

I thought visitors to the cathedral would be interested to learn about the technical side of stained glass, as the guides and volunteers you get in such places are always more interested in a window’s history and iconography. In the cabinets I showed samples of all the types of glass paint I use (yes - it’s still called stained glass even if it’s heavily painted), the tools of the trade and a new panel in progress. I made this just before the exhibition opened and I’ve been looking forward to seeing it again as I think it may be an important bridge between the work I’ve been copying from Ray and my own artistic path (below).

Panel in Progress: Left, glass pieces cut, painted and fired. Right, in the exhibition showing the leading up process.

Wall of black and white pictures: 46 paintings in indian ink & egg tempera on gesso hanging together in a cloud. 

“The pictures are written from scratch, I have no idea what they are going to be when I start. I have displayed them in groups on the wall forming clouds which you can see as a whole. But if you look harder you can always see something else in the cloud whether it is a camel, a weasel or a whale.” Ray Ward

Ray decided to hang his paintings, a recent series of egg tempera and indian ink on gesso, in a cloud formation hanging from a hidden bar where the wall meets the ceiling. A lovely shadow was created by the shape, which swayed slightly in front of the ancient stones and flints. One reason for hanging the paintings like this was to provide a space for the titles to be written up, large enough to read from a distance. Covid restrictions led to this solution which proved to be a lot better than the handouts you might normally provide as it put the words alongside the pictures, forming verses in your head:

Why are girls so obsessed with cats I really don’t think there’s much we can do. The problem is everything will be alright They’re wrong I’m more scared of success then failure. We will talk but have nothing to say The wind plays recalling madness, heartless cold reproof. Is anyone here enjoying this? An echo is not a reply.

A full catalogue of Ray Ward’s work in the exhibition can be found on his website, link here