It was great to see the windows in place, free of scaffolding and looking part of the fabric of the place. We are pretty chuffed, to be honest! It has been a fabulous collaboration on every level, and, most importantly, we are still speaking!
medieval stained glass
Conwy progress
Painting is progressing well on the windows. We are working flat-out to meet our deadline for installation on March 8th. I am really enjoying experimenting with etching and sandblasting as well as painting pieces, the fragmentary nature of the piece gives lots of scope to be spontaneous within a structure.
All these pieces will be cut up and included as fragments. Meanwhile, the painting is fabulous to do, so different to my usual approach to using colour, thinking all the time about the light! I am learning a lot about traditional techniques from Rachel. Hardly any time to blog!!
Drawing up cartoons
Things are going well with our Conwy Castle commission. Rachel and I are busy finalising the cartoons before we can begin cutting the glass for our windows. This involves drawing up more details and deciding on final positions. It is great to be collaborating with another artist, I am sure that the work will be all the richer for it. We have taken over my gallery as our studio and will be installing light boxes as soon as my New Year Exhibition is over.
We are incorporating details from medieval sources, such as the horse above from stained glass from Llangwstenin Church in Gwynedd, and the portrait of Edward 1st from stained glass in York Minster. Meanwhile its going back to basics, doing painstaking colour and firing tests on my new enamels – I can’t wait to get started with the painting!
Dolwyddelan Church
Rachel and I have been working on our designs for the Conwy windows.
We are now in Conwy for a site visit. We will be measuring and surveying the windows and doing some in depth research and designing work over the weekend. Today we visited the wonderful Church of St Gwyddelan in Dolwyddelan on the way north. It is a fantastic 15th Century church that contains a fragment window made with glass that was excavated from the site of the 12th Century Church on Bryn y Bedd. The glass dates from the early medieval period. The church also houses some lovely very early wood carvings including a rare ‘salamander’, a two-headed dragon with a knot in its tail.
Linda Norris Studio Blog 