John K. Clark - Glasspainter - Article by Mike Paterson
John K. Clark - Glasspainter Article By Mike Paterson

THREE famous piobaireachd tunes are uniquely interpreted at The Piping Centre in Glasgow ...in glass.

The Battle at Waternish, Glengarry's March and The Sound of Waves Against the Castle at Duntroon each inspired designs for the three storey-high stained glass windows in the McPhater Street building.
The key design element is the way that syllables of the canntaireachd are picked out in the striking blue widows. If you can follow the canntaireachd, you can hum the tunes.

The windows are the work of Dumbarton-born John Clark who, at 40, is Scotland's leading stained glass artist. He was recently commissioned to create Glasgow Cathedral's Millennium Window and his work is widely seen in Scotland. He has made windows for Paisley Abbey, the Queen's Park Synagogue in Glasgow, Strathclyde University and Glasgow's Cafe Gandolfi. He made the Lockerbie Memorial Window for Lockerbie and The Beirut Hostages Window in Essex.

These days, he divides his time between Glasgow and a studio in Germany where he has also won prestigious commissions.

"What I found wonderful about The Piping Centre project was being given an opportunity to be involved in this important aspect of Scotland's heritage," he said.
"To my knowledge, this is something that's never been done before...
and in this fantastic building. It's one of the jewels in the crown of Glasgow and I've been able to make one of the facets in this jewel." "The beauty of stained glass is that you're making something very permanent. They'll look exactly as they do today very many years after I'm long dead."

The techniques John Clark used to create The Piping Centre's windows date from the 14th Century.

He uses a glass made of two layers: a thick base, normally clear, with a thin layer of very deep blue glass bonded to it. The coloured layer of this "flashed glass7quot; is then etched with hydrofluoric acid to produce tones from deep blue to clear.
"This is the basis of the piobaireachd windows," said John Clark
"The form of the windows is a proportional grid within the rectangular space and, in each square, is a letter which is a part of the canntaireachd," he said.
"This forms a basic structure into which images have been interwoven - glimpses of landscape, of flowers and so on."

In the first window, based on Glengarry's March...bluebells seemed the appropriate Scottish flower... but also hints of landscape and still water.
"I tried to select imagery which related to each piobaireachd or my reaction to them," he said.

The middle window, based on The Battle at Waternish, is more col-ourful than the other two. Banners point to the military aspect of bagpipe music: a Jacobite flag and the first Union flag. A claymore and thistles are associated with the Jacobite banner and, with the Union flag, climbing roses and a broadsword. Above those, there's the symbol of the fiery cross. "Again there's an image of still water with almost sunset colouring behind it and the saltire in the sky. This is the sun setting on this Jacobite tradition," said John Clark.

"This third window is where my idea for this project started. There was a programme on Radio Scotland about Scotland's music by John Purser and he played the piobaireachd
The Sound of the Waves Against the Castle at Duntroon with the sound of the waves against the rocks. "It was very evocative. I began to see how I could treat this series of windows: there are seabirds and waves, still water, fish and fishing."

When he was installing the windows, John Clark was approached by a big man who made his way upstairs, looked at one of the windows and asked,
"What's that?"
"Glengarry's March," John Clark replied.
The big man began to sing...
"He sang quite a passage," said John Clark.
"Then he said: 'och you're quite right'.
"That was how I met Pipe Major Angus MacDonald.
"I thought it was beautiful; the fact that pipers could do that, because it was for them."

John Clark also provided a roundel for a cupola above one of the stairwells.
"I had no idea what to do with it. The other windows were long finished and installed."
"My friend, the architect Gerry Grams, asked me to make a flat lens-like panel that would be suspended in this space and I came up with the idea of using The Dashing White Sergeant, the dance."
"I found I could make this view from above - it's come to be called 'Wee Men Dancing'."
The roundel shows the heads, kilts and raised arms of dancers, and the main features of the dance. A border depicts more people, some dancing, some chatting.
It is a happy, entertaining design John Clark would like to apply in a host of other ways: from patterns on cups and saucers to mosaics in the street.

John Clark is currently working on a variety of projects in Germany, and has commissions in Hong Kong as well as in Britain.


And he is starting work on the Millennium Window for Glasgow Cathedral, a commission he said was "a tremendous thing: probably the thing I have most wanted to do since leaving Glasgow Arts School in 1981."

 

Mike Paterson can be contacted at Mike Paterson
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