Church Artist

What next?

2011-11-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Four Evangelists Designs

2010-11-04T20:06:00.003-07:00

Two Evangelists: Designs in Full Figure

2010-11-04T19:58:00.001-07:00

Design ideas for St. Catharine of Siena

2010-10-23T06:00:00.002-06:00

(Originally posted in 2008 and bumped up for reconsideration and additional design discussion with client.)

We've been away working on some church murals at another church, but had a break to moodle some more designs for the clerestory windows at St. Catharine of Siena. Here are variations and ideas:

All are in the $2,000/each range x eight windows, except for the most simple bottom window which is less.
Cost is determined by various factors, including the number of pieces of glass in the window, the particular glass chosen, whether glass-painting is involved, and the materials market in general.

Because glass and metal are selling at all-time highs right now, quotes we send out to clients are only good for three months. The stained glass industry is very labor and energy-intensive, not only because they require huge inputs of energy to manufacture, but also because they are not common commodities, often being imported from overseas. Many art glasses, for example, are manufactured in Europe. High oil costs immediately drive the cost of shipping up, and thus the cost of glass. This is above and beyond the intensive energy useage required to run the glass furnaces and manufacture the glass to begin with. The lead came cost is also being driven by scarcity of metals, so this is another factor to consider.

Below are suggested designs for windows in the choir portion of the church, four total which will each have a different symbol for the four evangelists. This one is for St. Luke. Here are two possibilities, and at bottom left the beginnings of a third:

These larger windows will cost from $3,000 - $4,000 each.

If symbols of the four evangelists aren't what the church would like, another option would be full-figure depictions of the saints. These, of course, would cost a bit more.

Theophany Fellowship Hall

2010-05-02T10:51:00.001-06:00

Glass mosaic modeled after a fresco at Stavronikita Monastary on Mount Athos.

Installed over door:

Theophany Entry Mosaic

2010-05-01T14:18:00.000-06:00

For images of iconography murals we have created at this church, click on the Holy Theophany Orthodox Church link in the left sidebar.

Traditional Mosaic Icon

2010-05-01T06:38:00.000-06:00

People often ask us if we have very much leftover glass when we make stained glass windows. That might be the understatement of all time. We have boxes of scrap glass. Of course, some of it is used for future stained glass windows if the pieces are large enough to be salvaged. The smaller pieces, however, can't be utilized for much except mosaics. Cutting the scrap into useable uniform mosaic pieces is quite labor intensive, but it's a good use for the material which is quite expensive.

Here's an example of a mosaic that was created for the church sign at Ss. Peter & Paul Orthodox Church in Kansas. The mosaic pieces have been painted and fired in a kiln to create the details in the faces.

Here, the same mosaic installed outside the church.

This young boy "venerates the icon", a traditional show of respect in the Orthodox Catholic church.

Theophany Temple

2010-04-30T17:27:00.000-06:00

The completed iconostasis, half-dome, and altar area. All murals are painted on canvas and applied to the walls, then background painting and stencilling applied in situ.

Orthodox Mural Painting

2010-04-30T10:52:00.006-06:00

Orthodox Icons

2010-04-29T21:42:00.000-06:00

Iconography for Holy Theophany Temple

Resurrection Chapel

2009-11-16T15:11:00.001-07:00

This window at Christ Episcopal Church in Canon City, Colorado is a 13-foot diameter half-round designed to incorporate the contemporary blue-tone windows along the sides of the Resurrection Chapel.

Holy Spirit Rose Window

2009-11-10T23:14:00.003-07:00

Gardening Saints

2009-10-28T15:54:00.005-07:00

Saint Fiacre and Saint Dorothy:

Patron Saints of Gardening

Lettered into the border of each window:

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

the song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

than anywhere else on Earth.

From The Lord God Made a Garden

By Dorothy Gurney 1858 - 1932

Custom Glass Medallions

2009-10-25T14:36:00.005-07:00

Hand-painted and kiln-fired, these are not stencilled. Images are created to client specifications and the biblical themes required for each church.

Saint Gabriel

2009-10-15T15:26:00.002-06:00

Our Lady of Victory

2009-10-10T14:33:00.007-06:00

From drawing to installation.

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

2009-10-01T21:17:00.002-06:00

Original designs and fabrication of stained glass by Michael Greer. Photos only by Ric Helstrom.

Our Lady of the Visitation

2009-09-10T21:29:00.000-06:00

Other church windows

2009-08-15T15:19:00.000-06:00

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-02-03T11:32:00.002-07:00

These windows currently are priced from $6,500-$7,500 depending on number of pieces of glass and amount of painting.

Mark 16: 5-6

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-02-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

John 19: 38-42

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Mark 14: 32-41

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Luke 15: 4-6

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-25T20:33:00.001-07:00

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

Matt 3: 13-17

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Luke 2: 7

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Luke 2: 46-49

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

John 6: 8-10

Scenes from the Life of Jesus

2008-01-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Mark 10: 14-16

Installation

2008-01-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Packing and delivering the stained glass

2008-01-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

The stained glass windows are packed tightly together with sheets of protective paper in between layers:

They travel upright on a glass rack:

And are unloaded and carried into the church individually and upright:

Choices

2007-12-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

The robe was first a lovely swirling blue.

But upon further consideration, the artist noticed that the window directly across from this one had a lot more red, creating a color imbalance in the overall effect of the church when viewed from afar.

So the glass was replaced with a red robe for better balance.

Step-by-step: Soldering the windows

2007-11-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Soldering the stained glass window is the final step before cementing and cleaning.

This process continues on both sides of the assembled glass. In the kiln, more painted glass for the remaining two windows is being fired, with each kiln-load taking 6-8 hours to fire and cool. Alternating between windows and processes keeps the glassworker busy at all times.

Step-by-step: Building another window

2007-11-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

Now it comes time to "lead-up" the stained glass window. Each of the hundreds of pieces of glass will be joined with lead cames. This is a meticulous fitting process as the window must match the pattern itself each step of the way.

First, each piece of glass is measured by rolling the edge on the lead, marking the end, and then cutting the came.

Then the lead came, being quite soft, is bent and formed around the glass piece. After marking with the lead knife, the lead is trimmed to fit with lead side-cutters.

Now the piece is carefully placed into its proper place on the pattern.

Then it is carefully fitted into the lead channel using the curved blade of a custom-made stopping knife.
If necessary, the glass is gently tapped into place with the lead end of the knife.

The piece is then temporarily held in place with horseshoe nails, and the procedure is repeated piece-by-piece until the entire window is completely assembled and ready to solder.

Modifications to color

2007-11-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

When the perfect piece of glass can't be found as in this case, the color is modified with a subtle bit of glass painting. Here, folds and shadows in the robe have been heightened for added depth and drama.

Then one final check with all the cut and painted pieces of glass on the light table. This is the last chance to make adjustments before the building of the window begins.

Painting with glass

2007-11-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

Though many of the glass pieces are painted, the choice of this American-developed opalescent art glass also lends a painterly effect. You can see in these robes, the swirls of color in the glass, chosen just so they give the impression of drapery and shadow.

Quite a bit of glass is cut and rejected before the exact right piece is chosen.

The sky colors, too. are chosen carefully for just the right mood and impact.

It's a very time-consuming process, but worth the end result.

Glass painting continues

2007-11-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

Even as the building begins, some of the glass pieces require additional detailing with paint. Here you see background painting of the crowds around Jesus on light blue glass, which will now be placed in the kiln for firing. Then back to building windows while the kiln does its job.

Step-by-step: working with lead

2007-10-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

What holds all the glass pieces together in a stained glass window is extruded lead came, which is available in various sizes. Lead is a very soft metal, and to strengthen it, each came is placed in a lead vice like this, and then slightly stretched to harden it. This process is called "tempering" in the metal trades.

Here the artist pulls back on the lead, while bracing himself with the back foot in case the lead came disengages from the vice. More than a few apprentices have take a spill during this part of the glass project. It might be considered the second greatest occupational hazard of the industry, the first being bleeding fingers.

Step-by-step building part 2

2007-10-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

We start building at this perfectly square corner, fanning out toward the opposite corner as we progress in fitting the many glass pieces into the lead channels.

At the top arch of the window, horseshoe nails must hold the pieces in place, and in fact, these nails are used throughout the building process to keep the glass and lead secure until the entire window is built.

No soldering is done until the entire window is built.

Step-by-step: Building a window

2007-10-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

Eventually, after much cutting and painting of glass, enough pieces are completed to actually begin assembling a stained glass window. The same pattern that was used as a guide for painting the glass pieces, is again used as the pattern for building. The window must be constructed on top of the pattern and precisely matched in size, so that it later fits into the church window opening. Here's the pattern with the wooden stops bracing the top right corner where the building begins. You'll notice that the painted borders are identical in all the windows.

And here is a collection of tools used to assist in that process, which requires precise fitting of the glass into the lead channels that hold the glass pieces together. Lead nippers, various stopping knives, and horseshoe nails are included in the line-up.

More later as we proceed through the step-by-step.

Be sure to vote

2007-10-28T16:10:00.001-07:00

Only a couple more days to vote in the poll at left. Tell us what your favorite church window is.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

2007-10-27T20:44:00.001-06:00

You'll find Our Lady of Guadalupe in most Catholic churches in the region, and St. Catharine's is no exception. You can also find her in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.

This sculpture is yet another by Norbert Ohnmacht, who also created the crucifix over the altar. You can read more about Norbert here.

Piece by piece

2007-10-27T19:00:00.000-06:00

And so the process of cutting, painting, and firing continues for each window, always making sure to keep the pieces properly numbered and sorted in separate boxes, so that when it comes time to build the windows, all the glass will be accounted for and ready.

It's hot in there

2007-10-26T22:40:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick peek inside the kiln just as it reached peak temperature and shut off:

Into the kiln

2007-10-25T15:53:00.000-06:00

Another batch of painted glass goes into the kiln for firing. The temperature will rise to about 1300 degrees in four hours, at which point the kiln will automatically shut off. This process fuses the glass paint into the glass and makes it virtually impermeable. The pieces will be painted and fired at least twice more with additional layers of paint for detailing.

More on Tiffany

2007-10-24T14:47:00.000-06:00

Mosaics aren't the only good use of scrap glass. When Tiffany Studios was in its height of production, their scrap heaps became enormous, so one of the many Tiffany designers (though probably not Tiffany himself) had the brilliant idea to design floral lampshades held together by the new technique of copperfoil. The designs are as popular today as ever, and almost every store with a lighting department sells China-made knock-offs for a reasonable price. Many of the original lamps are pictured and discussed in any of Alistair Duncan's numerous books about Lewis Comfort Tiffany, along with glowing treatises of the many church and institutional windows produced by the studio. I hesitate to mention Duncan's name due to the curiously bizarre turn his career and life took a few years ago. You can read more about it at the Museum Security website. As I write this, one can even go to the local post office and obtain postage stamps with this lovely Tiffany window depicted, part of the American Treasures postage stamp series. Tiffany's popularity lives on.

More about books

2007-10-22T22:45:00.000-06:00

Old and rare books are also included in our personal library, and these sometimes provide the best information about the old craft of stained glass. These are long out-of-print, but well worth the effort to acquire, especially for young stained glass artists with an eye to a career in glass.

The Art and Craft of Stained Glass by E.W. Twining

Windows by Lewis F. Day

Church Symbolism by F.R. Webber

How to read a blog

2007-10-21T11:47:00.000-06:00

Don't forget how blogs work when exploring this site. The most recent post is first, so to read these posts in the order of the stained glass completion, scroll downward and to the oldest post, and to previous pages until you get to the first post. You'll see a picture of the church steeple. From there scroll back up to read each post back to here.

Research and books

2007-10-20T23:51:00.000-06:00

The painting continues and we don't have quite a kiln-load yet, so more about that later.

In the meanwhile, going through books we use for research, I thought I'd check availability of various titles in our own library. Many of them are out-of-print and are selling for up to $250, so hard are they to find.

One of the best stained glass books ever written is called simply Stained Glass edited by Lawrence Lee et al.

There are others, and the bible of glass painting is by Albinas Elskus whose excellent how-to has taught many a modern glass artist the finer points of the art. It was a day of mourning for many when Elskus recently passed away. You can read about him by clicking the link at the left.

Glass painting continued

2007-10-19T21:04:00.000-06:00

Now that the glass has a thin matte of paint and has dried, the glass piece is placed back upon the drawing, and then modeling of the features begins. Here some of the dried matte is removed from the glass to create highlights.

More painting being removed.

And more highlights created.

Now a dark black paint is added with a thin brush in a procedure called "tracery".

Around the perimeter of the head.

And yet more detail being added. At this point, the glass will probably be placed in a kiln and fired to over 1300 degrees to make the paint permanent.

After firing for about four hours, and then cooling, another layer of painting is added depending upon the effects desired. This procedure might be repeated from 3-6 firings, depending upon the details and colors desired in the glass piece. It is a good idea not to fire the same piece of glass more than a half dozen times. A good glass painter can ordinarily achieve fine results within these parameters. More firing can result in destabilization of the glass itself.

Glass painting step-by-step

2007-10-18T13:54:00.000-06:00

In figurative glass work, at least the faces, hands, and feet should be painted. This requires not only knowledge of archival painting techniques, but also a good degree of drawing skill. Here are several areas in the Feeding the Multitudes window which will be painted.

This glass painting corresponds with the head of Jesus above right.

First, the paint on the glass palette is mulled for smoothness with a special glass muller.

The paint is quickly applied ....

....and then smoothed in all directions with a special brush called a badger blender. This must happen very quickly as the paint completely dries in only a couple of minutes. The last step in application as the paint is drying, is to stipple with a pouncing motion to create a pin-hole effect in the paint. The paint used here is a high-fire Hancock gray-green in water with gum arabic.

This step will be repeated with all cut glass pieces requiring this color. Now the paint is left to dry completely after which the modeling and tracery occurs. We'll show that next.

Loaves & Fishes Step-by-Step

2007-10-17T20:22:00.000-06:00

It starts with the cartoon. Doesn't hurt to look at it upside down.

Sometimes you see errors that the brain overlooks right side up.

Here the numbered tracing. There are lots of little pieces to cut.

Then glass is chosen. Here's why handpicking variegated glass becomes so important. This piece has a section marked for possible landscape inclusion.

Pattern pieces traced onto the various glasses.

The glass is cut with this special tool.

Then broken off and smoothed with special grozing pliers.

Next we'll go through the glass painting steps on the glass you've just seen cut.

Patron Saints

2007-10-16T15:50:00.000-06:00

Who amongst us doesn't like the idea of a patron saint? Each profession has one. St. Luke is often acknowledged as patron saint of artists, glaziers, and stained glass workers, amongst a host of other careers including physicians and policemen. But, some sources cite St. Mark as the patron saint of the arts. Today, I found a source that acknowledged St. Michael the Archangel as the patron saint of artists. We knew he was patron saint of armies in various religions. I suppose that's the main job. Well, it's fitting. Any job including one in the arts can be an uphill battle some days. Here's a mural section of St. Michael being completed for an iconography commission at Ss. Constantine & Helen in Colorado Springs. He's life-size. The halo is 23K gold leaf.

Installing windows

2007-10-15T10:37:00.000-06:00

Whether new or old, the final step in any process is installing the windows. In new buildings, the windows are generally glazed with double-pane clear glass, and the stained glass itself is stopped in from the inside. Here the artist nails in the pre-bent custom-laminated trim, formed to fit the window arches.

In old restorations, however, the stained glass itself may be the only glazing, and was usually installed from the outside. Here, Greer removes a panel at St. Charles, a process made much more interesting by a good, stiff High Plains wind.

More on repairs

2007-10-14T16:21:00.000-06:00

After carefully removing the buckled glass from the church door, a trace is made of the door-light to create a new pattern.

The lead of the old window is cut at the edge and systematically disassembled, attempting to keep from breaking the glass as the pieces are pulled out. This can be difficult depending on the hardness of the original improper cementing.

Replacement glass is obtained and re-cut if necessary, but an attempt is always made to salvage as much original glass as possible. Then the glass is placed on the new pattern.

Finally, it is re-leaded, a relatively simple procedure with straight lines like these. In this case, a bracing bar was also added to the completed window after cementing and cleaning to support the stained glass. We could see from prior experience that the swinging door in which it resides created damage and bowing over time. So now the door-light is better supported by the wooden frame of the door itself, and should prevent future stress and buckling.

Repairs

2007-10-13T11:03:00.000-06:00

Repairs are almost inevitable with stained glass windows. It isn't necessarily the glass that causes the problem. Glass has surprising strength and resilience and most often stands the test of time far longer than the metal in the window. It's often the lead came that takes the brunt of damage, whether from a blow, sagging caused by weight and lack of bracing, or even just weakening and crumbling from exposure to elements.

In the past century, it became practice to include hardeners in the cementing formula used to stiffen and strengthen the channels of the lead cames, and it was a practice embraced by almost all professional stained glass studios. Unfortunately, decades later, when it came time for windows to be re-leaded as is normal about every 75-100 years, restorers discovered that the inclusion of the hardening portland cement, made it virtually impossible to disassemble the window without breaking the glass. Good intentions had created an enormous dilemma, compounded by the fact that many glasses used early in the past century were no longer available. So matching and replacing broken glass becomes a nightmare for the modern artist.

Just such a situation occurred at St. Charles and here is a picture of an interior door panel that has buckled:

Sometimes the bow in the panel can be gently flattened without damaging the window, but that is not the case in this situation. More to come on how this restoration proceeds.

The baptism

2007-10-12T12:16:00.000-06:00

This is the final window in the completed sets so far. The lovely sky glass nearest the top border is an opalescent multi-color cut from the middle of the sheet. This variegated type of glass was developed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge with the intent of creating very painterly and naturalistic windows, and often the artist will buy a large sheet of glass to get that perfect small cut out of the center:

Next we'll show a series of repairs at St. Charles nearby, and share some of the challenges of matching and replacing old stained glass, as well as removing windows from old moldings.

Jesus in the Temple

2007-10-11T12:35:00.001-06:00

This window is particularly effective due to the atmospheric background and shadowy figures created with glass painting. The method harks back to European cathedral windows - using a mixture of ground pigments and glass - that is applied with special techniques, and then fired in a kiln to temperatures ranging from 1050-1350 degrees. When the glass itself just begins to soften and slump, the paint fuses into the surface, guaranteeing permanence against all but the most aggressive abrasion.

Indeed, it is the metal - the lead came - that is the most fragile part of a stained glass window, and most subject to the deterioration wrought by time and improper cleaning methods. We always advise our clients that "benign neglect" is the best upkeep of their stained glass, and most certainly to never clean the stained glass with modern cleansers like Windex spray.

The Pieta

2007-10-10T16:23:00.001-06:00

The most famous rendition of The Pieta is by Michelangelo, and resides at St. Peter's in Vatican City. Viewed by millions of worshippers through the centuries, it was damaged by a hammer-wielding vandal in 1972. After restoration, the marble statue was enclosed in a shatter-proof glass enclosure that could only be viewed from a distance. Most good images today come in the form of professional photographs available in printed documentaries.

One such black and white photo became the inspiration for the stained glass Pieta at St. Catharine of Siena. This is a good example of what artists refer to as "derivative work" in which one artwork inspires and informs another, many times in a different medium.

Thank you

2007-10-09T20:08:00.000-06:00

Unless otherwise noted, all designs are copyright of Greer Studios. Photographs are copyright of Hotbutton Press.

Art wouldn't appear in churches without the generosity of patrons. Special thanks to these generous donors for their contributions to the stained glass window fund:

RoseMary Gergen
Marian Lutters
Dvorak Family
Dr. Earl & Darlene Berens
Arleen Swartz
Joan Tomes
Gary Erker
Don & Rita Sircy
Bud & Ruth Pekarek
John & Pam Pekarek
Ed & Deb Cure
St. Catharine Altar and Rosary
The Ridder family in memory of Wilma & Herman Ridder
Don & Pauline Stewart

At the tomb

2007-10-08T12:46:00.000-06:00

Imagine going to visit your deceased loved one at the tomb only to meet an Angel like this. It must have been rather a daunting experience.

Next the lower windows

2007-10-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

Each side of the church has a row of windows like this:

The far left window is nearest the altar, and it was decided to start with these nearest windows on either side of the church as we progressed through the project. The scenes depicted:

From the altar on the right side:
The Tomb
Pieta
Gethsemane
Good Shepherd
Jesus and the Children

Left:
Nativity
Jesus in the temple
Baptism
Feeding the multitudes
Sermon on the Mount

The Nativity window was installed for Christmas 2006 and was created specifically with the parish children in mind.

The day we installed, they were practicing their Christmas program so got to see the new window before anyone else, and we got to meet these sweet littles:

Next, the opposite window, The Tomb.

Angels on High

2007-10-06T12:52:00.000-06:00

Who amongst us doesn't have a special fondness for angels? The next windows to be completed at St. Catharine's were St. Gabriel and St. Michael up high, and to complete the windows viewable from the front of the church. This window is cut and placed on the pattern in preparation for leading (at left). You can see the numbered glass pieces, which correspond to the cut pattern pieces as well as the appropriate areas in the full-size cartoon. This process keeps hundreds of pieces of glass organized during the cutting and building procedure, the portion of the project that probably is the most time-consuming.

Here's Michael Greer on the scissor-lift installing one window.

These are the completed windows before installation:

Alas, it's occasionally the case that the installed windows are difficult to photograph due to lighting and height of placement, and though these add to the overall beauty of the church, they are not as readily apparent as the other stained glass windows.

The completed entry windows

2007-10-05T22:12:00.000-06:00

This is the entry of the church before the Ascension and Assumption stained glass windows were installed:

The Assumption of the HolyVirgin is installed in the left window.

The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ is installed in the right window.

The narthex

2007-10-04T21:49:00.000-06:00

It was decided that the narthex windows, also known as the entry to the church, would depict the Assumption of Mary on one side, and the Resurrection on the other. High above in the sanctuary, St. Michael and St. Gabriel would stand guard on each side of the descending dove. All of these windows can be seen from the front of the church.

Again, the process began with scale color drawings, that were then enlarged to full-size by hand into black and white "cartoons".

These were then traced to create a pattern to cut apart, and then traced onto the glass for cutting. Notice that the borders of all the windows are the same, creating a cohesive design element throughout the church.

Next the pieces are painted with special glass painters' stains and enamels in the traditional European way used for several thousand years. They are then placed in a kiln and fired to fuse the paint to the glass at temperatures up to 1350 degrees. We'll show more details about the actual glass painting process in a future post.

Altar windows

2007-10-03T18:01:00.000-06:00

The altar windows were the first completed in large part for reasons of comfort. Because the altar faces east and because services are most often in the morning, the blinding sun was a bit uncomfortable for everyone save the priest, who stood in silhouette before his squinting congregation.

Also, artist in residence and sculptor, Norbert Ohnmacht had already completed the life-size corpus, so the windows on either side of this needed images to complement the hanging sculpture. Symbolically, the East represents Calvary so each window was designed to support the centerpiece, the bronze crucifix. The installation was completed in time for Easter services that year. It is not uncommon to plan completion and installation of stained glass to coincide with the holy day represented in the image. Some, though not all, stained glass studios do this.

The plans

2007-10-02T19:02:00.000-06:00

First on the to-do list was determining the theme and the specific style of stained glass. Because stained glass is an architectural craft, the new structure itself gave clues to the final art glass designs. The church building committee favored a Tiffany-style look beginning with the dove for the rose window. (See photo at the top of the page.) This set the tone for the remainder of the windows which were designed using the theme, “Scenes From the Life of Christ”.

Many sources are used for images including beloved paintings from bible illustrations and earlier church art in art history books. These images are in the public domain, which means no one any longer owns the copyright, most likely because the artist is long dead. So these familiar scenes are recreated again and again even in modern works.

In fact, the Tiffany Studio used old works like Heinrich Hoffmann's The Agony, depicting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Other popular paintings like The Good Shepherd are

also repeated in modern renditions of traditional painted stained glass windows.

We'll describe in more detail and in subsequent posts the process of painting the actual glass pieces. But, first, the client must choose a design and that is accomplished by researching the historic artworks, modifying as necessary or creating completely new designs, then rendering them as colored maquettes for the patron's approval.

These are examples of color renderings

created for St. Catharine of Siena. Greer's

drawings are completed by hand, but many

stained glass designers use computers.

Church on the Plains

2007-10-01T20:47:00.000-06:00

Several years ago, Michael Greer decided to retire from designing and building stained glass windows. He finished commissions in process, moved to the country, and embarked on a project painting icons for an eastern orthodox temple, newly built in Colorado.

Not too many miles away lived fellow liturgical artist, Norbert Ohnmacht. He and his family attended St. Catharine’s of Siena which several years before had been virtually destroyed by an arson fire. The modern sanctuary was redesigned by local architectural designer, John Pekarek, and when Greer stepped into the new sanctuary, all thoughts of retirement were a thing of the past. What true stained glass artist could resist the opportunity to design art for one blank window after another? And so the project began.

The church as patron of the arts

2007-01-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

The history is long....