Studio: international art (13.1898)

Some Glasgow Designers

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window by oscar paterson

accuse him
of an at-
tempt to
foist poetry
upon an
unsu spect-
ing public,
who only
looked for
stained
glass. But
if by chance
he has tres-
passed on a
jealously-
guarded
domain, let
us c o n -
elude he did
it uncon-
sciously.
Even in law
an uncon-
scious tres-

commercial product, he has tried to make a given pass is dealt with gently, and if Mr. Oscar
space of fenestration comely and sparkling. He Paterson, chipping pieces of coloured glass to fit
has also succeeded. It must be a cruel jibe to bent segments of lead, has accidentally annexed

a sonnet, sober folk should not call attention to
his digression, but agree to believe that it was a
mere accident.

For to-day, if there be one virtue that is at once
a hollow sham and tyrannical autocrat, it is the
virtue of common sense. All the same, one doubts
if Mr. Paterson has ever come into collision with
it: regard his windows merely as apertures to admit
light and keep out wind and rain, and they stand the
test. They are not light-repellant, they soften and
diffuse the rays, it is true; but they do not shed a
dim religious light which at one time seems to
have been the chief effect the glass-painter aimed
to secure.

As Mr. Paterson has himself said, " The process
of stained glass may be divided into two sections :
the one which builds up a mosaic, the other which
calls in painting to accentuate forms and define
certain details." If to the second of these simple
methods you add more painting and more realistic
modelling, the glass-window soon becomes a semi-
transparent painting, with leads in place of black
outline, but merging quickly into an illegitimate
attempt to do more than its needs require.

The position of a window presupposes certain
window in black and white class qualities. Mr. Paterson believes that if it be high

by oscak i'aterson then the design should make for quality of light,