Exhibition
Wild at Heart
From a huge number of entries, 44 member artists have been chosen to present work that uses animals and wildlife to explore their creativity.
The work conveys the power, vulnerability, fragility, awe, delicacy, colour and sheer beauty of the animal kingdom.
The idea behind this show is to portray the importance of the creatures that share our planet, their influence on artists in glass, and their presence alongside us. Animals are often an ideal reference that will entertain, inform and captivate us.
This was a juried show.
The show was launched on 27th October 2014
A turbot carcass obtained from the local fishmonger "burnt" into black bullseye glass.The detail picked up by the glass is phenomenal even down to the pores of the skin.
The Aye aye lives in the forests of Madagascar. With eyes and ears that are specially adapted for dark nights, they prowl around looking for insects inside and outside tree trunks.
30cm Fused glass dish using transparent sheet Bullseye and frit.
"I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar." Winston Churchill
Feather Crown takes inspiration from the American tradition of the 1900’s and uses over 60 pate de verre feathers attached to canvas using stainless steel sewing pins. Red sewing thread has been used to link the pins and feathers and indicates the route taken: that is the necessary journey.
Painted clear and coloured glass in an oak stand
Kiln-fired glass decorative panel with iridised glass and dichroics.
Description: The brief for this private commission was simple – to depict the wildlife and surroundings of Oxford.
Up to the mid-19th century, bison were as common as grass on the North American prairies. Herds could stretch for miles, numbering in the millions. A variety of factors contributed to their demise: deliberate overhunting, which undermined the native culture and paved the way for European settlers; the industrial revolution, which required strong bison-hide machine belts; the feeding of bison meat to workers who were building the railways; and, rampant sport hunting. By 1880, the mighty beasts were gone.
The factors that caused the near-extinction of the bison are worth examining today because history is easily repeated. If we treat any living thing as product, how long is it before we view our fellow man in the same way? The question is as pertinent today as it has always been. So as to ponder this further, I acquired a bison skull and glued on many thousands of squares of mirror, mimicking a disco ball. The purpose was to demonstrate that when things are “sugar-coated,” we tend to practice willful ignorance of the truth.
Taking the skull from object of strange beauty to personal journey of exploration, I spent three months’ worth of weekends driving far out onto the prairies to photograph it in pertinent settings: buffalo jumps and rubbing stones; North West Mounted Police forts; taxidermy and butcher shops; and, many protected areas and historic sites. Criss-crossing from the Alberta foothills to the Red River Valley in Manitoba and back, I had lots of time to examine my ancestral part in issues of colonialism. All this has helped me to begin to know myself and my post-colonial identity better.
Circling buzzards are a regular feature in the skies of the valley where I live. Less common, but always breathtaking, are the aerobatics of the resident rooks trying to drive the buzzard away from their nests, which inspired this piece.
Fused Bulleseye glass and frit, using a decal transfer for the image. Laminated to float glass
Approx 18cm wide x 40cm tall. The panel is translucent to enhance brightness and intensity of colours. Work was inspired by photographs taken by Charlie Hamilton-James (photographer and co-author of Halcyon River Diaries with Philippa Forrester), but technique, colour choice and final design are all my own.
Hand blown lead crystal honey pot (blown by Steve Bradley)
Hand (drill) engraved by Lesley Pyke .
This was a commission for a client in USA. Size 15cm tall x 9.5cm wide.
www.lesleypyke.com
fused paint on 6mm "Optiwhite" float glass
20cm diam fused bullseye glass, decorated with two chasing foxes and slumped into shallow bowl or plate.
Although the Polar Bear is a magnificent mightily predator, it has become vulnerable to the deterioration of its habitat.
This is a consequence of the receding pack ice of the Artic polar cap due to climate change.
Polar Bears find it very difficult to hunt seals (their primary prey) out in the expanses of the sea without the pack ice to lurk and rest.
Painted and sand-blasted flashed glass
Sandblasted picture, deep carved to create the three-dimensional image of an Eagle. It reflects the dream of the Duck to become a powerful and fearless Eagle.
Inspired by nature, this copper foiled box is worked in layers of laminated glass. The base layer is mirror glass. It is delicately sandblasted with an intricate skeleton leaf design.
The next layer includes fauna and flora made from embossed and tool worked copper sheet which has then been verdigris. Other metals, antique lace, sequins and fragments of fine fan coral [taken dead from a beach], are also included. A layer of thin glass is placed on top.
A dragonfly, with wings made of iridescent pink shaped glass, stands almost 3D on top of the box, its body is made from glass beads with a leaded antenna.
Cast Bullseye glass. I have been aware for some time, of the decline in the Bee population world wide.
I hope this work give the viewer a moment to reflect on the vulnerabilities of our environment
The panel depicts part of the course of the River Mole which cuts through the chalk of the North Downs - creating the Mole Valley area of Surrey. Blue butterflies are attracted to the chalkland environment, particularly around Box Hill. The panel is one of nine in a series titled 'Pages from my Journals' - each panel illustrating a pertinant memory or chapter of my life, taken from journals and diaries I have kept over the decades.
Free blown, hand painted using high firing onglaze enamels.
Private commission for a Puffin lover - needless to say he has a sense of humour!
Blown to my design, cut, polished, wheel and drill engraved. A sea plankton. This is a solitary ‘spumellarian radiolarian’ that manages to emit light faintly by bioluminescence, discovered by Huxley. Found in the Sargasso Sea.
This roundel was painted to commission last year. It features a tawny owl perched on books featuring the initials of the members of the family.
The piece was inspired by the extraordinary beauty of Humming Birds (Trochilidae) and measures 47(h) x 47(w) x 5(d) .
Take a bow is part of series of images of birds first created for "Syrinx" a collaboration between Dominic Fonde and british print maker Alison Wilson. The word Syrinx describes the vocal apparatus of birds. The work created for this show was first shown in Singapore in October 2014 and will travel to Bangkok in January 2015
Flame worked boroscilicate, 15cm x 15cm x 2cm. £200
Five pieces of cast glass, representing a family of wolfs alert to any threat to the family.
Triple Overlay cased colour core. Indigo & jade over olive green.
Intrinsic cameo sand carved on the inside of the vessel.
Portrait of a Vixen. 2014
A sculpture of a snake made out of cut pieces of glass.
gilded hare
This bowl was created as part of a series of vessels for an exhibition in conjunction with Bristol Zoo and the Avon Wildlife Foundation called "Near Endangered". I spent several months visiting the zoo and the Avon Gorge area of Bristol learning and researching about the many locally endangered species and those further afield, part of the zoo conservation programme. I became fascinated with the butterflies and collected many wings, their colour,
pattern and fragility became my main focus of study.
I began working with glass powders, by creating many layers and spraying with water I was able to achieve
the rich ephemeral sheen of the butterfly wing. Like a watercolour I was able to build up colours and blends using different
kiln firings.
This necklace is in the collection of Deutsches Museum Munich Germany.
This piece is a series of small cast glass boxes each one with a functioning hinge. The idea behind them was to show the progression of a creature escaping from a box. Due to the behaviour of the creature some of the hinged aren't able to open as the creature prevents the lid from moving. Inspired by Sea Anemones and Octopus.
Clear blown glass form on a black blown glass base.
The clear blown form is ground, cut, sandblasted and polished.
Dimensions - Clear Form: Length 20cm. Ht. 12.5cm. Depth 10cm.
Base: Length 42cm. Width 28cm. Ht. 1.5cm.
As with much of my work there is 'hidden' imagery so look closely and you will find 5 birds.
The work is hand drawn, screen printed onto glass and fused.
Size 35x15cms
Dogs are a much loved asset to nearly the whole population of the world.
Who is say that a robotic dog would not take the place of a real one in the not too distant future.
Glass panel created with stained glass panting techniques, and coloured glass powders.