Why Fused Glass?
Fused glass is an exciting medium that offers the artist an almost limitless range of creative opportunities using basic glass materials in an incredible range of colours and techniques. Each firing takes around fourteen hours and each time the kiln is opened there is an exciting new piece of striking glasswork. Each piece can then be added to with further layers, or adapted in many other ways.
All these original pieces are carefully created in my studio using Bullseye Glass and fired several times depending on the effect required.
Each is a complete one-off, original artwork. Similar pieces can be reproduced but no two will ever be identical.
Sizes vary from 10cm square to 30cm square (or diameter).
They can be displayed hanging in a window, on a wall, or on a stand, and can also be used as an eye-catching table centrepiece and complemented with either candles or other decorations for Christmas and other celebrations.
Bowls, small dishes and free-standing wave forms can be created.
I have also undertaken commissions for glass panels above an internal door, and for external house number plates.
There are so many ways to see the play of light and colour in glass artworks - in daylight or artificial light, or with different backgrounds or different light sources. The photos are able to show the pieces but they can’t fully describe the stunning, and ever-changing effects of the combination of colour, texture and light!!!
All these artworks have been carefully made and finished, and are strong pieces of solid, rigid glasswork that have been heated, fused and annealed according to established fused glass programs. If required, edges have been cold-worked to ensure complete smoothness. Nevertheless, care should be taken when handling: this is hand-crafted glass art.
Why Digital Painting?
Creating original images on iPad is amazingly liberating; there is an endless palette of colour; there are techniques for controlling opacity and building layers of colour washes; the zoom tool enables fine details. Drawing skills can be used to the full. And any stage can be deleted or saved according to the artist’s decision.
In fact with practice there are techniques that an artist can develop which in some ways can create more striking effects than when using conventional oils, acrylics or watercolour.
Rather than becoming overworked and dull, colour and line can be added repeatedly, deleted or saved for further work, giving new and constantly vibrant effects, which means experimenting is positive and rewarding.
But the possibilities of this new medium should not be measured against how closely it can replicate conventional techniques: it should be valued for its own distinctive results and its own creative potential.
David Hockney gave recognition and status to the medium of digital art when he displayed his iPad images in his recent RA exhibitions. He has demonstrated that this new medium offers exciting and accessible opportunities for all artists to create images in a new and original way. His latest exhibition will show iPad paintings from his time living in Normandy.
I draw from life, photographs and imagination and can work virtually anywhere and at any time.
- Canvas prints from the online images are professionally printed with UV resistant inks and mounted on a wood frame. A black or white floating frame is optional. From 20x20cm.
Alternatively,
- Photo prints can be made in various sizes and framed in a black or white box frame. From 10x10cm.