“Through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling”
(Gabriel García Márquez)

New stained glass commission September 2022
by Surinder Warboys

Commissioned by Ben and Sarah, writers who have travelled, written about and have a great love of Latin America and the Caribbean.

I had not travelled to those regions myself, but earlier in the year I read a book by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, which led me to read nearly everything else by him. Ben and Sarah shared my enthusiasm for García Márquez, only they had read him in the original Spanish.
My work is experimental by nature and I work directly with the glass without preconceived designs to show the client. So it is important to engage clients as the window takes form. Studio visits were made and periodically images of progress were sent to them. They were fellow travellers on a stained glass exploration!

My proposal for the starting point for the window was that they select a passage from his writing and send it to me. The words they chose were from One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Spanish text:

“Poco después, cuando el carpintero le tomaba las medidas para el ataúd,
vieron a través de la ventana que estaba cayendo una llovizna de minúsculas flores amarillas. Cayeron toda la noche sobre el pueblo en una tormenta silenciosa, y cubrieron los techos y atascaron las puertas,
y sofocaron a los animales que durmieron a la intemperie. Tantas flores cayeron del cielo, que las calles amanecieron tapizadas de una colcha compacta, y tuvieron que despejarlas con palas y rastrillos para que pudiera pasar el entierro.”

Translated in English:

“A short time later, when the carpenter was taking measurements for the coffin,
through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling. They fell on the town all through the night in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and blocked the doors
and smothered the animals who slept outdoors. So many flowers fell from the sky that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a compact cushion and they had to clear them away with shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could pass by.”

The panel is a complex work involving etching, painting, staining, enamelling and laminating of antique glass. It is a palimpsest, in which underlying text is faintly visible. The top-most text was etched and stained several times to achieve the quality of dappled light. I enjoy making discoveries as I work, particularly engaging in new techniques such as using a goose quill and stain of an ink-like consistency on glass.

Surinder Warboys
16th September 2022

NEWS: Delighted to announce the Fressingfield Window was completed in April 2022.

(added Aug 2022)

We were working at a height of around 50’ from internal and external scaffolding: quite a challenge!

The before and after pictures show the transformation and the dynamic and uplifting effect stained glass can have on the environment as well as being a contemplative medium for the mind. 

Window before restoration

Coloured light transmitted from the stained glass onto the clerestory wall and arches, moves round inside as the earth orbits the sun outside:

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New Private Commission Completed

(added Oct. 2021)

Surinder has just completed a frieze designed and made for the top of a wall separating two rooms

Pictures below show two of the three sections:

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New Window Installation Approved for Suffolk Church.

(added Sept. 2021)

Faculty has been granted for a new stained glass window at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Fressingfield, Suffolk.

Artist’s Brief

To produce a design on the theme of the Holy Spirit, incorporating an image of a dove. The design of the window: to be similar in style to that of the East Window of All Saints Church Kesgrave: a window which we designed, manufactured and installed in 2016.

Artists’s Statement

This contemporary and uniquely lucid design has been inspired by the abstract notion of the Holy Spirit to which there are many references made in the bible: one being the tongues of flames on the day of Pentecost, at other times, it as been imagined like a dove, descending from the sky with promises of peace and hope as in the Baptism of Christ by Early Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca.

The aim of the design is to bring together the many qualities that come to mind as evocations of the Holy Spirit: a mysterious force of energy, movement, sound, light and grace; a weaving of elemental forms in constant flux, of a world in which we are all inextricably linked. The subtle, yet dynamic presence of the dove, integral to the design, provides a universally recognizable form, to connect and engage the viewer.

Once the design is translated into stained glass it will make a beautiful and bold focal point, high up in the east window of the nave. The rays of coloured light will enhance the interior space and cast lovely reflections on the clerestory walls, moving round inside, as the earth spins and orbits the sun.

The original design in watercolour is by Rowland Warboys and will be translated into glass by Surinder Warboys.

Surinder Warboys is a Member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters (BSMGP) and the Contemporary Glass Society.

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The East Window at Chillingford ('Ascension Window') has been included in the book '100 Years 100 Treasures' A Celebration of Suffolk Churches (author Diana Hunt et. al).