Ooh, I have never been more pleased with a panel than this very latest one.

Annette was a fan of my quirky scenes and houses on the hill and she wanted me to capture a bit of this in a panel for her new front door.

 It was to include her house, her alpacas(!), the cove and key colours were to be cold bright orange and aqua turquoise..! “Oh, yikes,” thought I!

Oh and then wintry trees were thrown in to the mix too… And Annette got infectiously excited and talked of painting and dropping molten glass…….

The bar was set. I knew I would have to pull out something special.

How to introduce the orange into the picture?…”That’s easy” said Annette, “I want a sunset”. And although turquoise is not a colour you always associate with Morecambe Bay I thought I could make it work down below.

Annette sourced some cute wee embellishments and then it was up to me to pull it all together.

Annette was keen to have transparent colours in the centre, moving to opaques around the edge. And this was where I started ………….

I sketched up the house with lights burning and worked up the curves that would envelope this little ‘home fire’. The natural geometry of the Cove lent itself well to framing the picture at the bottom and I had some stunning ‘Armstrong glass’ that suited the limestone rocks but with flashes of beautiful turquioise.

My cliffs would rise up on either side to the spidery arms of wintry trees that formed a protective canopy around the home.

I then used every technique at my disposal to make it work. Glass applique was used for the intricate house section; copper-foiling to include the pottery and a beautiful sweep of copper beech hedgerow; then all pulled together with strong lead lines holding in the opaque framing.

To add to Annette’s quirky additions I ratched through my collection of shore pottery and found a couple of gems. “A present for Edw….” Was most appropriate, (Annette’s hubby) and even found a wee greenhouse and gate that had been waiting for just the perfect spot!

And the finishing touch, painted trees on the opaque red/orange glass. A new experiment for me and only made possible by lending my mate Peter’s tools and kiln.

I have loved this project. It absolutely glows. Can’t wait to see it in Annette’s new door!