Glass Transfer Painting is a practice dating back to the Middle Ages in which paint is applied directly to glass and viewed from the unpainted side. Since a painting on glass is very fragile I use a technique invented by the artist Robert Cartmell for transferring the painting from glass to paper or canvas. This is a process in which the back of the painting is adhered with polymer to paper or canvas and left to dry for twenty-four hours. It is then submerged in a bath of water and after a short time carefully lifted away from the less adhesive glass. What interests me most about Glass Painting is that my first impressions and marks are nearest the surface. Because in Glass Painting you work from the foreground to the background, the underpainting is added last creating new possibilities for unifying and deepening a composition. It is like turning a painting inside out.

ETCHED TRANSFER PAINTING

Etched Transfer Painting is a blend of Glass Painting technique and traditional etching methods. A copper or zinc plate is etched and then inked and wiped as you would do before printing your etching. The plate is then coated with a layer of polymer, sealing in the ink and preparing the surface to paint as in a Glass Painting. When the painting is completed it is adhered to the canvas with polymer and left for twenty-four hours to dry. Then the painting is carefully pulled up and away from the plate. The ink in the etched lines is pulled out and sits on top of the painting in relief. This procedure creates a luminosity of color that sits behind beautiful fine black etched lines.

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