I breath a big sigh of relief as today I received verbal acceptance of my quotation for a stained glass window to St Augustine's Anglican Church in Merwether, a suburb of Newcastle. I'd already put a considerable number of hours into developing the design for this window and was not at all certain that the donor would accept the price but my fears were groundless; he is very happy with both design and price.





Costing a window is always a difficult and treacherous task: the client requires a quote up front yet one can never be certain exactly how long a project will take, even when a design has been approved, because each job is a new project, presenting new challenges. Making art is not an exact science. One tries to cover all the bases and also make a profit but it's never guaranteed. At just under half a square metre in area $6,000 is somewhat above the market rate (in this country) but I feel this window will be an important artwork. It's also quite an intricate design with a lot of painting and decorating to achieve the desired result. It will be an interesting development in my oeuvre.




Out in the street yesterday I got into a collaborative artwork with my friend Sallie Portnoy, a fellow glass artist. We had several comments from passers by, congratulating us on adding some fun and livening up the street environment. While I've been painting construction hoardings for some time now, this was my first collaboration and I really enjoyed the experience. It certainly pushed the work somewhere else.




Those who know Sallie's work will recognise her familiar motifs of winged objects. There may well be more appearing in the coming weeks, if the artwork stays up for a while.