In the last issue of Glass Craftsman, I said that, for me, the choice of glass is probably the most important factor contributing to artistry in stained glass. Tiffany’s company made glass for specific purposes, and raised the medium to a new level of expressive power. Now, we have a huge selection of stained glass available for our creative purposes. We just have to make the effort to familiarize ourselves to what is out there

Oddy, Robert N

English

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Syracuse University SURFACE School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship School of Information Studies (iSchool) 10-1-2011 Choosing Glass: Color and Impressions Robert N. Oddy Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/istpub  Part of the Art and Design Commons Recommended Citation Oddy, Robert N., "Choosing Glass: Color and Impressions" (2011). School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship. 154. https://surface.syr.edu/istpub/154 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Information Studies (iSchool) at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact surface@syr.edu. Figure 1: Hybrid Tea RoseFigure 2: The Luncheon (C. 1872) Claude MonetChoosing Glass: Color and ImpressionsRobert OddyIn the last issue of Glass Craftsman, I said that, for me, the choice of glass is probably the most important factorcontributing to artistry in stained glass. Tiffany’s company made glass for specific purposes, and raised themedium to a new level of expressive power. Now, we have a huge selection of stained glass available for ourcreative purposes. We just have to make the effort to familiarize ourselves to what is out there.I am writing from the perspective of my chosen artistic domain, which is the traditional stained glass fabricationwith copper foil. I do not search the whole world of art technique for the effects I wish to create. I am interestedin what I can achieve within the limits of soldered copper foil lines. In case you are beginning to think that I am adogmatic purist, I must tell you that I have no dogma or axe to grind – I frequently bend my own rules! The pointof working mainly within technical limitations is that you examine more closely the potential of your chosenmaterials and techniques.Depicting natural subjects in a representational way in stained glass is akin tothe painting style called impressionism. Wikipedia defines impressionism as“re-creating the sensation in the eye that views the subject, rather thanrecreating the subject”. This distinguishes it from a detail-oriented,photographic approach to representation. With the form of stained glass artthat I choose to practice, photographic realism is not possible. Lead lines aresimply not adequate to create the right impression. We need to make theglass speak for us, to take advantage of it’s texture and color variations andsubtlety. We will not get exact details, but we can rely on the eye and brainof the viewer to understand.There are twosteps in choosing glass for a piece of stained glass art:(i) We choose a sheet with potential, and (ii) For eachindividual piece in the panel, we choose a part of thesheet that has the characteristics we want. For most ofthe glass I buy, I much prefer to go to the supplierand choose the sheets myself, rather than trusting tomail order. I look for interesting features or colorvariations that I will be able to exploit.We are capable ofperceiving anddistinguishing millions ofshades of color – if thiswere not so, there wouldbe no point in having24-bit color codes in computer graphics programs. Yet we still say that leaves aregreen and roses are red! If we carry this simplification through to the choice ofglass for a stained glass composition, we will end up with something that resemblesFigure 3: Central New York(1989) 44″ x 27″, Robert OddyFigure 4: Roses (1998/9) detailRobert OddyFigure 5: Playing Hands (1999)10″ each side, Robert Oddya child’s “paint-by-numbers” picture. Look at the photograph of a rose in Figure 1.We know that it is almost monochromatic. If you laid the petals out flat on a well-littable, there would be little color variation. But look at the colors you actually see inthe photo – not that which you think you see.The variation is due to the lighting conditions – a mainsource of light, such as the sun, and some ambient light – and to the curvature ofthe petals. If we can imitate this or suggest this by clever choice of glass, our workwill come alive. As artists, we should be aware that color perception is not alwaysobvious. Figure 2 is Monet’s painting The Luncheon. There are a number of whiteobjects in the picture: the table cloth, the parasol on the bench, the woman’s dress,the child’s shirt, the silver coffee pot. But there is very little pure white paint! Eventhe bright areas are tinted with yellows and blues. Monet knew that he should leave itto the brain of the viewer to do the interpreting, not to do it himself, in the painting.This way, the viewer would understand the total scene, and the relationships betweenthe various features at that moment in time.Let me give you some examples from my own work:Figure 3 is called Central New York because it is a, somewhat stylized, depiction of alandscape typical of that region. The sky is made with a light white on clear streakyglass. As often happens with white glass, it looks a little amber. The clouds areblowing towards the viewer. I took account of perspective, so the streaks in theglass are arranged to fan out towards the viewer. This gives the impression ofspaciousness, and also of movement.The hybrid tea rose in Figure 4 is one of ten differentroses in a pair of sidelights. The whole composition usesseveral different greens for leaves. In this section, adark mottled green gives the impression of shadows andimperfections in the leaves. Note especially the choicesof red glass in the rose blossoms.Playing Hands in Figure 5 is a miniature panel for a door. The body of the drum is inone piece of chocolate brown glass, chosen to give the impression of a cylindricalshape. It has a light stripe sandwiched between two dark areas. Also, look at thecreases and contours in the wrist and hands, which are suggested by carefully chosenFigure 6: Rhododendron(2000) 24″ x 14″, Robert OddyFigure 7: Tiger #2 (2004)ornament with carved wood, 9″ x 14″, Robert OddyFigure 8: Tribute to Monet(2006) detail, Robert OddyFigure 9: Seville(2009) 38″ x 34″, Robert Oddypieces of amber glass.Figure 6 shows a panel calledRhododendron. Here, I want to point outthe use of Spectrum’s waterglass torepresent the leathery leaves. Note thedirection of the ripples.In Tiger #2 (Figure 7), I chose a part of the sheet with a transitionfrom yellow to white for the body of the tiger, so that the animalwould have the characteristic white belly.Figure 8 is a detail fromTribute to Monet, showing awoman based on one of Monet’s women with parasols. It is raining in mypiece, so she holds an umbrella instead of a parasol! The tones in theumbrella are chosen to make it look rounded, and to contrast with thewoman’s hat and scarf. Her dress is made of Uroboros’s drapery glass.The pieces are chosen to show folds in the material and her lovely figure.Finally, a slightly fancifuldepiction of historical Seville,Spain, is shown in Figure 9.Throughout this design, I wasconscious of the direction of thelight source (i.e. where the sunis in the sky). This determinedwhere the shadows andhighlights should be. Some ofthe deeper shadows wereproduced by plating (attaching asecond layer of glass behind thefront layer).Don’t be like the sad little boy in Harry Chapin’s song, repeating anuninspired art teacher’s words: “Flowers are red, green leaves aregreen. There’s no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have been seen.”Notice the variations in colors that your eye perceives, and how your brain interprets these to imagine the livingworld. Look for features in the glass that you can use to create impressions. Be like Michelangelo, who fanciedthat, when he sculpted, he was discovering the figures that already resided in the marble!

Choosing Glass: Color and Impressions

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