Glass Paintings a Beautiful Art of Bygone Era

Glass painting is a very popular art form. It is executed on the glass sheets with oil and hard resin or with water color and gum on glass sheets. Glass painting is a folk art tradition which flourished from the 15th to the 18th century in Europe and North America. The technique of painting on glass flourished in India in the 18th century under the influence of the Chinese artists who lived and worked for the nobility and royalty.

Unpainted areas of glass are coated with mercury, which provides a mirror background to the colored images. It creates a kind of illusion between the viewer and picture space. The colors seen through glass appear translucent, as they cannot be touched. It gives a jewel-like appearance which is magical.

Glass paintings have various themes:

• Animal Glass Paintings




• Mughal Glass Paintings-




• Indian Epic Glass Paintings




• Bird Glass Paintings

Designs and Patterns:

Glass paintings involve various design and patterns that are enticing and mesmerizing. It consists of various designs patterns that are exquisite. The various mediums, forms, imagery, subject matter, and symbolism are employed and adopted to create a glass painting. The visual format of a glass painting has expressive patterns of arrangement of lines, shapes, colors, tones, and textures. The usage of colors and shapes in a glass painting communicates a particular mood, and creates forces of both harmony and tension.

Process:

As the name suggest, Glass painting is done on clear glass. Glass painting is a unique art that requires immense skill. Painting on glass involves a process different from the procedure used when painting on opaque surfaces. It is extremely difficult and requires visual memory and fine detailing for the finishing and shading lines. The picture mounted with its unpainted side uppermost so it can be viewed through the glass.

Glass painting development:

Glass painting technique is spread extensively in western and southern India, across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Bengal. The town of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu is known for the craft of painting on glass. Often the glass paintings are referred to as the Thanjavur sacred icon paintings. To make devotional images of God and Goddesses, the glass paintings are decorated with gold leaf. The rich and bold colors are used giving a feeling of opulence. The paintings of the deities is placed within a formal frame depicting heavily fringed and tasselled curtains, chandeliers, glass lamps, winged angels, or heavy furniture.

Popular Glass Painters:

Glass painting is regarded as a fine art in northern Europe. Some of the popular glass painters in Europe are Willi Dirx, Ida Kerkovius, Lily Hildebrandt, Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, and Heinrich

Reverse glass painting:

Reverse painting on glass is an art form consisting of applying paint on a piece of glass and then viewing the image by turning the glass over and looking through the glass at the image. This art form has been flourishing for years. This style of painting is famous for the depiction of the Hindu deities especially in Southern India. It involves a large amount of Gold paint and uses colors like red and green for the gem stones adorning the deities, which provides real jewelry effect. Acrylic paint is the commonly used painting medium.

Stained glass painitng:

The term stained glass refers to the material of colored glass or the craft of working with it. It is applied to the windows of churches, cathedrals, and other significant buildings.

It is made in flat panels and used as windows, and also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture.