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

The Grotto

August 2016

It’s hard to believe that the end of our garden looked like this so recently, a straggly bank up to a sloping fence that new neighbours had just put up. Since then, and especially during lockdown, we’ve spent a huge amount of time gardening. Transforming the bank and unearthing the rubbish buried underneath was at one time Ray’s major project. He made paths, steps, benches, an unexplained grotto and planted mostly ferns.

August 2016

July 2017

The photos I found show the bank during the two summers it was constructed. There is a high up bench (above) where you can sit and watch traffic on the A346, and a low down shady bench (below) for morning coffee break. The grotto, seen side on in the centre of the photo above and to the left in the photo below, was made of concrete and covered, like most of the walls, with the flints which are so abundant in our soil. Ray made a window in each side and a corrugated plastic section of roof to let the light in to whatever he was going to put inside it.

July 2017

The whole construction looks particularly fine in the snow (below) with all the sloping lines and steps visible. The existing trees were what had determined the contours of the walls and flower beds. One peculiarity of the grotto was the way it was hidden by a stray conifer in the flower bed in front of it, it took another year for us to realise that it had to go.

February 2018 - view from the studio

November 2020

My part of the grotto was lining the inside with shells. The fact that nothing is straight or symmetrical was a challenge to my sense of order, but the shells we collected over a couple of summers dictated the ‘design’. The scallop and oyster shells came from Kent, while the cockles came from Curracloe Beach in County Wexford where we collected over 500 in one evening’s walk. We found the current keeper of the grotto on a recent trip to King’s Lyn, where everything except the shops was shut. So it’s become a seaside souvenir grotto for times like these when we’re spending so much time at home.

Top: The current keeper of the grotto. Bottom: Curracloe Beach and girls eating ice creams.

Disembodied head

Purple man from ‘These People Are Intellectuals…’ Left, in progress. Right, in the exhibition at Norwich Cathedral

Purple man’s disembodied head was an unplanned addition to our exhibition at The Hostry, Norwich Cathedral. When making the stained glass panel ‘These People are Intellectuals, They Live in Houses Full of Books and Have Nothing Worth Stealing’ (described in a previous blog post) purple man ended up with two alternative heads. I did a second one (on the left in the photos above) out of the same piece of flashed streaky purple glass because I thought I’d sandblasted too much of the purple layer off on the first head. However head number one turned out to be the best one, so head number two ended up on its own stand in the display case alongside an explanation of how the window was made.

St Margaret, Stratton Strawless Left, the south aisle. Right, north window containing medieval glass.

When you start looking at old stained glass in churches you get used to seeing disembodied heads. These are pieces of medieval stained glass that have survived breakages or the releading of windows and find themselves either part of another picture or out on their own. We made a trip to the village of Stratton Strawless, just north of Norwich, to see a perfect example of fifteenth century Norwich glass painting in the angel head which has been set into a clear glass window (above and below). Miraculously the church was not locked and it is full of stupendous monuments and second hand books as well as the angel head which seems so beautifully done now that I’ve started painting heads myself.

Stratton Strawless, the C15th angel head.

Stratton Strawless, glass in the windows of the south aisle.

Set into the windows of the south aisle are a collection of other glass fragments, including the heads of a bishop, a king with a fascinating web of lead lines where he has broken and a strange head which is all beard and no hair (above right). All of the other churches we drove to were locked, so thank goodness for a visit to Castle Acre Priory. Here were windows and arches, carved patterns and lines and among them just a few carved heads (below).

Stone heads from Castle Acre Priory.

Arches

Left, Version 4, glass panel 270mm square. Right, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery - currently closed.

I was working on a series of painted glass panels called Theme and Variations while planning our exhibition at Norwich Cathedral. It was only when I looked back at this photo of the castle (above right) that I saw the connection to the rows of arches in my series, even down to the inverted concrete arch of the horrendous glass lift exit in front of it. So I added the castellations to the top of the last in the series (above left) in the hope that a local visitor to the exhibition may notice the link.

Left, Norwich - from Castle Meadow to the Royal Arcade. Right, Stained glass inside the arcade.

Most of the buildings in Norwich I’d earmarked to visit to see the best examples of old stained glass were closed. With covid restrictions in place, the city felt like a half empty stage set so I wandered around and found interesting architectural details everywhere. The rounded arch, filled with fresh floral stained glass, made another appearance in the Royal Arcade (above).

Left, King’s Lynn - the locked doors of St Nicholas’ Chapel. Right, beside the locked doors of King’s Lynn Minster

By the time we got to King’s Lynn and found that absolutely every building that wasn’t a shop, cafe or pub was shut, we had begun to get fed up, despite the beautiful locked doors and interesting architectural features - more arches on top of arches.

An outdoor visit saved the day. Nearby are the ruins of Castle Acre Priory, a Cluniac monastery from around 1089 to its dissolution in 1537, with the most magnificent set of arches you could hope to see (below). The enormous west front has a solid base of round arches around the original west door, and a large pointed mid 15th century window inserted above. Wonderful to see the combination of the two types of arches combined in the elaborate architectural detail and to find inspiration on how to take my painted series forward.

The West Front of Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk.

These People Are Intellectuals

‘These People Are Intellectuals, They Live in Houses Full of Books and Have Nothing Worth Stealing’ is the full title of Ray’s large black and white drawing (below). When I decided to make a larger stained glass panel from one of his drawings, I had no hesitation about choosing this one, partly because of the fabulous title that tells you what is going on in the picture. The shadows of the two helmeted robbers are seen in the back window and then repeated in the foreground, medieval style, so you really know who is talking.

These People Are Intellectuals… 880 x 680 mm. Acrylic and indian ink on card. Ray Ward 2019

The photos below document the making process starting with the choice of glass colour and texture. In stained glass dark colours come to the front, unlike in easel painting where they appear to recede. The blue flashed glass I chose for the foreground talking heads dictated the rest of the colour scheme. I’ve learnt from the previous collaborative panels to keep the colours restrained, so stuck to the purple side of blue contrasted with sandy yellow. I used clear glass for the back wall and textured glass for the ceiling and open doorway. Ray said he had no idea who the legs in the doorway belonged to, so I decided to leave them out.

Left, 32 Cut pieces laid on top of a photocopy of the drawing. Right, First layer of sandblasting, painting and staining.

Left, Detail of completed foreground pieces, showing silver stain diamonds on carpet. Right, Work in progress on big and small light boxes - the bookcases needed a second layer of black (iron oxide) paint.

Left, Four figures in progress with an alternative, less sandblasted, head. Right, Back wall has been double sandblasted with wallpaper stripes and fired with black iron oxide for window, skirting and lights. Blue enamel panes and silver stain beams of light in unfired state.

Left and Right, Leading in progress.

Left, Cementing, the lovely stage where the window comes together. Right, Sunshine through the completed panel shows the sandblasted areas as shadow.

Completed panel 700 x 540mm

The panel is on show alongside Ray’s original drawing and the notes and lists I made during the process in our exhibition at Norwich Cathedral ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ until December 12th.

Click this link for the full exhibition catalogue