Well, it took me most of the summer, but I've finally finished my latest "stained glass" window painting: Hollyhock Window. If this looks rather familiar, it may be because I modeled my painting after the Tiffany Landscape Window, commissioned for the Rochroane mansion in New York. My parents got to view the original window in person when they took a trip to visit that area of New York for their fortieth anniversary and they took a picture for me, knowing how much I love stained glass artwork. My favorite aspect of Tiffany's pieces are how he blended color and used different types of glass to build up textures and shades in his work. I tried to mimic some of that, particularly in the leaves of the plants, rather than just copy the "streaky glass" effect for the whole thing. I did make my own changes, however, so as not to outright copy Tiffany's work, but instead blended elements from several of his pieces to create my own unique scene.
The most challenging part was probably the cloud portion. Clouds are difficult enough to paint in the first place, but to make them look like clouds made out of glass is a challenge entirely unto itself. I don't know how successful I was here, but for the first time experimenting with that idea, I think it turned out okay. There will have to be more practicing as I go, though. To learn more about the work that inspired my painting click here to watch a short video from the Corning Museum of Glass explaining how the piece was created.