Isaac Smith - Artist - Searching... a work in Stained Glass

I had a painting of a male figure with musculature broken up that looked like he was making his way through obstacles searching for something. I have wanted to create an art glass piece of this painting for years and I finally felt like I was at a stage creatively with glass to be able to do it. The painting had quite a bit of depth to it and I wanted to maintain that depth with flat glass which is a difficult process. I picked out hand blown glass with different splotches of color for the background and hand blown amber glass of varying shades for the body of the figure. The figure was to be all hand beveled clear glass with the ambers beveled and bonded on top of the clear bevels. To create depth with the linear quality of bevels I had to create the bevel differently. A standard bevel is on average is about ½" wide and is even all around the shape of the glass. When all the glass pieces have all the same bevel to them the whole piece looks flat. I wanted to have the appearance of the curve of the leg coming forward and curving around to the side and back. I started making the bevels different widths to come up with the dimension that I wanted. Even on one side of a piece of glass, a bevel may start out wider at one point and gets narrower to the other point. After creating the clear bevel, a color piece is cut then beveled and bonded on top of the clear bevel. This creates a little more depth. I bond the glass together instead of fusing because I want the linear qualities of the bevel to create the depth and movement. Fusing would lose the crisp line. Another thing I did to create depth and movement was to use three different widths of lead came which make certain areas pull forward and others push back. The right hand of the figure comes out of the rectangle of the piece to pull you into the space.

I love this piece. It has a depth that one would not think possible in a flat glass piece. The bevels play with the light and create so much dimension. It is spectacular when the sun hits it.

This piece is 50" by 33" including frame/stand.

Contact Isaac for more information.