REMODEL: The Great Stained Glass Affair Panes 3
Pane almost finished.
The first pane produced was actually the third design I thought about. While the first two panes were very easy to come up with, the third pane took more time to come up with a solution. I really tried to come up with my owns designs but life was just serving me to much in 2022 and 2023. The design of the pane support began Spring of 2024, the shortly there after the production of the first pane began. The first pane took a little while to produce and the second pane intricate nature took more time.
I wanted this pane design to have richer look it and I wanted to be based on of my two favorite artists. Either Paul Klee or Kurt Schwitters. Both amazing at using color and geometric shapes. As I scrolled through photos of the works I’ve seen at various museum the last 40 years. As i moved from Mary Blair pane to pane number three. The next obvious choice was my love for another artist who predated and probably inspired Blair with her love abstractionism. It was Paul Klee’s art pieces that I kept looking at over and over. So many amazing pieces to draw from his body of work. Klee’s “Castle and Sand” from 1929. The painting was apart of show during his years as a professor at the german art school, Bauhhaus.
Progress shot.
At first I wanted to do “Highways and Byways” but the design would just be too busy for the square pane. Then I strongly considered his 1920 piece, “Temple Gardens”. In the end I finally settled on the “Castle and Sand” painting has been in private collection since it was sold around 1930. Sadly the piece has never been seen in show since it was acquired. Some concern is that it might actually have been one of the hundreds of Klee artwork that was classified as Degenerate by the Nazi’s in the 30’s and destroyed.
The piece was perfect and could be easily translated into a stained glass pane for the sun tunnel. Watching this piece come alive was really fascinating because it was actually the first piece the John built. This was also a learning piece for John. While he built and installed the frame to support the four panes. The key is measurements, and after it was completed, some adjustments were necessary. The lessons learned were applied to the other three panes. John was worried that the number of reds were going to tricky to find enough glass options to complete the whole pane. He got lucky and the overall construction was perfect.
