Cannon | MacInnes

This is an interesting project for us, privately commissioned by an architect and his wife. It is the first time that we have worked together, designing, drawing and painting on top of each other's work, each with a free hand in all the stages. Usually one of us takes the "lead" role.

Linda initially designed the overall composition, and laid down a rough colour scheme and line work using a variety of mixed media to free up the image.

It is important for us to liberate the line work from the colour, and to liberate the colour from the leadwork.

Rab then overpainted Linda's painting, with pinks, reds and yellows.

There is a freedom and a risk about working in this way. Neither of us are sure exactly and precisely where the window design is going to go next. We have to trust each other's ideas and ability to see what's happening within the painting. Fortunately, the clients both understand this approach, and, so far, have been interested with how the window is looking. We greatly appreciate their trust.

The window is cut from the most expensive French and English flashed glass. The colour is removed with acid to allow for white spaces inbetween the rich reds and blues. The small dots of blu-tac temporarily hold the cut glass in place to allow the pieces of glass to be painted.

Layering different flashed colours allows us to acheive the colour-movement we were looking for - blues on pinks, greens on blues, blues on white, and so on. Sometimes two layers, sometimes one. Sometimes the colour is left half-toned to acheive other, richer effects.

Debitus oil paint is traced over the layers, to bring each flower back to some form of cohesion, visually.