Having completed initial sketches of the memorial windows, I’ve now decided that I am sufficiently satisfied with them to start stage two. This involves drawing on good quality watercolour paper, to a scale of 40% of the full size. That’s actually quite a big drawing, about 70 cms. high. The original sketches have been squared … Read more
This stained glass business is an ever-developing challenge. I moved on today to the elaboration of a 40% version of the final thing. Although I’m convinced that my idea is a good one, I am coming to realise that it has a large number of small pieces in it, and that will add to the … Read more
That’s the easy bit. Somehow pieces of imagery from different sources all seemed to converge, although derived from quite diverse places and experiences. I have drawn initial versions of each window at about A4 size, with the expected leaded divisions marked in black ink, and the glass indicated in coloured pencils. I’ve managed to get … Read more
Or so they say. Tackling the windows project certainly requires a change in my work practice, and I’m beginning to think that whatever the outcome it could be refreshing. It has become clear that I am actually going to be required to draw these windows three times. The first version is a strategic planning exercise, … Read more
Both the magnitude and the artistic purposes of my window designing task are starting to register. I’ve already had to email a list of four questions to Bob the glass man, and no doubt there will be a similar list before the week-end is out. One of the central aims I want to set myself … Read more
Over the past two days I’ve been down in Oxfordshire, visiting the National Defence Academy. Why, you might ask, would a former regional organiser for CND want to visit such a place? The rather surprising response is that I have been invited to put forward a design to be considered for two stained glass windows … Read more
We went up to How Stean again today, to collect my pictures at the end of my exhibition, and managed to get in a nice walk first. Oddly, it was only in the last mile that I started to see things which might be interesting from an artistic point of view. To see things properly … Read more
We went up to South Square again yesterday. I like to look at the exhibitions apart from the opening night: after all, the point is to actually see the art, not the punters. As usual I thought that the shows in the “minor” galleries were better than that in the “main” gallery. Sammy Palfrey, in … Read more
Well: I suppose I begin at the beginning. I’ve just got back from a two-week tour of my old stamping ground in the Balkans (Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje). We’ve been talking about the possibility of doing this for several years. I think the emotional obstacles to this were greater than the practical ones. In any case, … Read more