Speaking at the Art Gallery of NSW

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I was chuffed to have been invited to speak at the Art Gallery of NSW on Sat July 9th as a part of their new exhibition Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite designs, studies and watercolours, thanks to the recommendation of my colleague Ray Barlow.

The exhibition includes quite a number of sketches and cartoons for stained glass windows and also an actual stained glass panel and the associated full-size drawings. The window is the very first of Edward Burne-Jones' prodigious output: it has none of the finesse and complexity of Burne-Jones' later works but is nevertheless a valuable addition to what is a beautiful exhibition and to my knowledge is the first stained glass window exhibited by the State Gallery.

Positioned at the entrance to the exhibition I had an attentive audience of around 30, growing to about 50or so by the end of the hour. After a general discussion of the work of Edward Burne- Jones and his colleagues, where I mentioned the beautiful windows of All Saints Anglican Church at Hunters Hill, I took the audience through the making of a stained glass window from inception of design to painting the glass. It was a lot of information to pass on in just one hour but it seemed as though they enjoyed the presentation.

The exhibition continues until 4th September, with more demonstrations and lectures each Saturday, organised by Josephine Touma, Acting Snr Coordinator of Public Programs for the Gallery. Josephine was a great help in setting everything up. It was terrific having a large screen data projector to show the video files I had of the making of the St Bede's window at Pyrmont in 2009. And much thanks to my friend Robert Knapman, intrepid photographer, who took on the assignment of capturing me in action.