I always knew how to write. Right.

This was how I tried to ‘settle’ my thoughts …(that were darting around my sparking brain like ricocheting chinks of light from a flicking rippling oily pool of silvery sprats!)(yeah. You get the picture)(chattery brain)…. As I accelerated out of Swansea by train on Monday. Having just completed seven long full days of painting and staining masterclass.

Travelling…back to what it is that I do.
Yikes. What do I do? I know how I did it. I know I could do it. Only now. Freak. Like I said

I mean, I knew how to write. Right..

Right. Only… now to my writing I could add… a new flourish. That’s how it feels As I digest and cogitate my last few days at Swansea.

Oh my. My scholarship year. .. like a rollercoaster it roller coasters on. (Thanks again QEST).

A Jonathan Cooke masterclass at Swansea College of Art… The Architectural Glass Centre…..University of Wales Trinity St. Davids. It’s on my map!

I knew as soon as I entered those hallowed corridors that it was going to be good. Swansea Art College has a rich history of contemporary stained glass and the examples in its corridors made me gasp. Magnificent windows at nearby St Mary’s church from artists including Patrick Reyntiens and John Piper and Japanese artist Kuni Kajiwara were also staggering. Many of the panels were built by Swansea college commercial department.

The Jonathan Cooke masterclass. What can I say! Such a generous, knowledgeable, patient and passionate tutor. He had us captivated with brushes and paints and fragments of historical glass. Jonathan must be a world leading authority on all things to do with conservation and restoration of historical stained glass.Mornings were spent listening and learning. Note taking and sharing. And the afternoons getting our hands dirty. It was fabulous! (Most days we were there 9 till 7.)Huge thanks must go to all the staff at agc UWTSD and my superb classmates. Boy, did we have fun in Swansea. A bunch of misfits finding our fit right there!Pages upon pages of notes. Stacks of snaps. Samples and examples and friendships made. I have come away with a fuller-ness of knowledge and an absolute appetite for more. Swansea has delivered on just so many levels.
But how did I start this blog entry…Oh, yes… I always knew how to write, right……!
Yes. There have been new tools. New ingredients. New methods. And I’ve even had to buy some..(I mean the brushes had bird names!)Goose… crow… (tis the size of the quill)Lavender oil … clove oil…(My workshop gonna smell so sweet)
But what I also saw in that room of scholars and academics.. was Magic Passion Curiosity (Perhaps a wee spoon of obsession)(ok. a big scoop!)

Glass and light. Our chosen subject.
From this course I am enlightened and illuminated. But yikes, also (mostly) stilled. Humbled. And in awe of….

Such a lot to learn.

(At this point I take a big sigh. It can often feel so huge. My undertaking. To make myself better!)

One chink of light at a time eh!

Now. What is it that i do…… Oh yes.