Lectures

The British Society of Master Glass Painters is fortunate to attract many eminent speakers on stained and architectural glass from amongst its UK and international membership and beyond. Subjects range from modern to mediaeval, brought to life by the enthusiasm and expertise of historians, conservators and contemporary practitioners.

Venue: The Art Workers Guild, Queen Square, London WC1 (Admission by ticket only)

Organizer: Helen Robinson

Further enquiries to: lectures

Programme 2013

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SPRING LECTURE
Friday 8 March - 6.15 for 6.45pm

Alan Brooks - Francis Spear - A Student of Art and Symbolism'

Francis Spear (1902-79) was a significant contributor to Twentieth Century stained glass. In a fifty year career, he made over 300 windows for more than 130 locations. His work is to be seen in England, Wales and Scotland (Glasgow Cathedral in particular), and also in St George's Cathedral, Cape Town. His career is of much interest, beginning as a student at Central School and the RCA in the 1920s, and then teaching at both institutions. Stylistically he was was much influenced by Martin Travers whom he assisted early on, but was becoming more radical until the War intervened. Then after the War he contributed greatly to meeting the tremendous demand for new glass following the devastation caused, and he carried on working up to the early 1970s. Late in his career he described himself as 'a student of art and of symbolism'. Travers gave him the taste for symbolism, but in regard to the former, Spear was remarkable in the diversity of his artistic achievement and virtually had a parallel early career in lithography.
 
The illustration shows part of an experimental panel of 1938 (© V&A Images/ Victoria & Albert Museum).

DISCUSSION DAY - Wednesday 8th May 10.00 - 4pm

Challenges in contemporary glass practice and a meeting with English Antique Glass (EAG)

One of the biggest challenges to contemporary stained glass artists is the diminishing range of glass available to us.  Manufacturers and suppliers have been affected by the economic recession making it increasingly difficult for them to stock the range of materials we need.  This year we will be meeting with English Antique Glass (EAG) from Birmingham, the last surviving maker of English mouth blown sheet. The company has recently been acquired by a new owner so this is a timely opportunity to look at the unique qualities of their material.  As well as meeting with representatives from the company, three practising artists; Nicola Hopwood, Emma Butler Cole Aiken AMGP and Glen Carter FMGP will explain the importance of this material in their own work.  A limited range of glass should be available to purchase on the day.

We hope that as many practising artists and students as possible will attend the day as it gives a rare opportunity for members, particularly small independent practitioners,  to speak to a manufacturer directly, discuss our needs and understand the commercial pressures that affect us all.

SUMMER LECTURE & ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Friday 14 June - AGM 5.30pm, lecture 6.15 for 6.45pm

Amber Hiscott ‘Paint, Paper, Glass................’

When Johannes Schreiter’s window designs were rejected for the refurbishment of Unilever Headquarters in London in 1980 - a young architectural glass artist from Wales was commissioned by Theo Crosby, to  produce designs which were fabricated by the Derix Studio in Taunusstein.

Amber Hiscott was in her “post-modern phase” and meteorically went on to design and make The Liberty Canopy for Regent Street in her studio in Swansea.

This oscillation between designing and making has been a feature of her varied and fascinating career, with paper and paint playing as important a role as the lathekin.

As a painter, sculptor and stained glass artist she continues to push the boundaries of what is expected, whether it is for Sheffield Cathedral Lantern;Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; Great Western Hospital Swindon; Lambert’s Glass Factory, Waldsassen; Leafboat, Swansea; Razor Shells or Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff.

She is presently painting her way into four profoundly thematic windows for a cosmic corridor at the Green Mountain Monastery in Vermont. 

AUTUMN LECTURE
Friday 11 October - 6.15 for 6.45pm

Michael Peover & Elise Learner ‘The renewal of the painted glass at Strawberry Hill’

When Horace Walpole created his gothic extravaganza of Strawberry Hill his mix of Netherlandish roundels and English armorials reflected on a domestic scale the monumental windows of King’s College Chapel where in his time at Cambridge he had researched their painters. After two major reorganizations of his collection of painted glass, and the sale of much of the English glass, the on-going restoration of his house presented the chance to display the glass as originally intended, and to recreate some of the lost items from surviving original designs. The recreated displays make use of newly discovered contemporary water -colour sketches and fragments of the original coloured glass employed in the settings. The strategies used in the conservation of roundels with faded and missing detail, and their mounts, will be described. A particular problem in the use of enamel paints is to achieve the intensity and hue of the original using modern equivalents and results of recent research on their combinations with modern glass will be presented.

LECTURES RETROSPECTIVE

2012

• Keith Barley FMGP - ‘Perhaps the finest specimens of pictorial glass-painting in the world’: the Herkenrode windows of Lichfield Cathedral’
• Discussion Day - ‘Issues in professional practice and a discussion with Lamberts Glass’
• ‘Swansea’s best kept secret’ – a presentation by the staff from the Swansea School of Glass, Swansea Metropolitan University.
• Dr Douglas E Schoenherr - 'Two Burne-Jones Manuscripts: The Account Books and The Cartoon Book'
• Peter Cormack - 'A Stained Glass Family Album: the life of Christopher Whall and his Circle in photographs'

2011

• Anna Eavis - 'An 18th-century recusant's collection; the windows of Milton Chapel, Oxfordshire'
• Chris Chesney - 'The wonderful worlds of Photoshop and Coral Draw'
• Pippa Martin - 'Lawrence Lee: master stained glass artist of the twentieth century'
• Mark Angus - 'Between Heavens: angels' journeys in glass'

2010

• Jo Nuttgens - 'A Working Argument: How I survived my father and became a stained glass artist'
• Glyn Davies - 'Leading and Light Boxes; Conserving the stained glass in the V&A's medieval and rennaissance galleries'
• Tom Denny - 'Recent windows in extraordinary buildings'

2009

• Roy Albutt - 'The Bromsgrove Guild'
• Andrew Rudebeck - 'On the trail of John Thornton'
• Leifur Breidfjord 'New Work'

2008

• David King - 'Personalities, Politics and Plays': The stained Glass of east Harling Church, Norfolk
• Ellen Mandelbaum - 'Light Listened', a review of the work of this contemporary glass artist.
• Geoffrey Robinson FMGP - 'Windows into the life of a Stained Glazier'

2007

• Kate Baden Fuller - 'Contemporary stained glass artists and how to write a book about them'
• Sarah Brown MA FSA Hon FMGP - The Judge, the traitor, his wife and her lover - the medieval glass of Tewkesbury Abbey'
• Doris Rollinson, Andrew Taylor and Caroline Swash '- 'Fifty Years of Glass - amongst other things'. A celebration of the life and work of John Hayward FMGP'

2006

• Tim Lewis – 'The importance of the teacher in stained glass'
• Ginger Ferrell – 'A new bag of tricks': the use of kiln formed glass in new work
• Dr David O'Connor – 'Mediaeval stained glass in Scandinavia: Gotland's gothic glass'
• Tony Benyon, Peter Cormack FSA and the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles AKC, MLC – 'Alan Younger, focus on an artist's life: three perspectives'
• Peter Gibson - 'The Christmas Story in Stained Glass'

2005

• Catrin Jones - ’20 years of practice’
• Caroline Swash – ‘Confessio. The thoughts and art of Johannes Schreiter’
• Julie Sloan MSc and Dr James Yarnall – ‘John La Farge’
• Dr Paul Binski – Canterbury Cathedral and the aesthetics of martyrdom’

2004

• Dr Michael Peover - 'Sleeping Beauty : unseen stained glass at the Soane Museum'
• Linda Lichtman – ‘Little and large: keeping the personal in public commissions'
• Ruth Taylor Jacobson – ‘Marc Chagall’

2003

• Dr Tim Ayers FSA – ‘Glazing the English Medieval cathedral:the East End of Wells c1320-1340’
• Graham Jones – his work in stained glass
• Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe – ‘The most exacting of masters, the most ruthless scrapper of imperfect heads: the art of Wilhelmina Geddes 1887–1955’