insideKENT Magazine Issue 71 - February 2018 | Page 29

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
KENT ARTIST PROFILE:
STONEY PARSONS
STAINED GLASS HAS BEEN AROUND IN ONE FORM
OR ANOTHER FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, BUT KENTISH
ARTIST, STONEY PARSONS HAS BROUGHT THIS MOST
BEAUTIFUL OF ARTS WELL INTO THE 21ST CENTURY.
insideKENT SPOKE TO HER ABOUT HER WORK.
How did you become an artist?
I was always interested in art as a child and I
did a stained-glass evening class because I
loved the bright colour of the glass. My artwork
was always quite graphic, which lent itself to
the lead line and I loved making things. I went
on from there and am pretty much self-taught.
How would you describe what you do?
I am an architectural glass artist and painter,
that is to say I am a stained-glass artist, but as
well as using traditional techniques with glass
and lead, I use contemporary technology to
make modern designs on large pieces of float
glass too.
What’s the most interesting commission
you’ve ever received?
I was commissioned by Felix Dennis, who has
since sadly died, to do a seven-foot diameter
round window for his sculpture garden – the
Garden of Heroes and Villains in Dorsington,
Stratford-on-Avon. It was in a converted barn
on the site where he had a study to write his
poetry and the glass was to be a backdrop for
a sculpture of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian
Man. The brief was that it should be colourful
and include draperies from his paintings. It
was made of beautiful hand-blown glass that
was bonded onto float glass and my
techniques included acid etching, painting
and firing, and screen printing.
You say that the natural world inspires your
work – how?
I find nature very inspiring and spiritual. I am
able to walk in beautiful Eridge Park by my
studio and I find it very healing; I just love
looking at everything, seeing the patterns in
leaves and the outlines of pine trees against
the sky. I take lots of pictures for my art but
always in sunshine – it is the light that brings
everything alive just like with my stained glass
windows; without the light they are just black.
What does 2018 have in store for you?
It’s going to be a busy year. I am about to start
designs for a window in a private house in
London with a Barbados theme; I teach ‘Art
from the Heart’ art classes for adults in my
studio and am working on a new programme;
and I also teach this in Greece for Skyros
Holidays. I am starting wine and paint classes
at Saltmarsh Art Shop in Tunbridge Wells,
which should be great fun, and I’m running a
holiday in France at the beautiful French
Retreat near Bordeaux in June. I have some
great ideas for my paintings which I am itching
to find the time to do; it’s all rather exciting.
Where can we see your work?
I have recently done a window for Holy Trinity
Church, Eridge, and I currently have a piece
in an exhibition at the stained-glass museum
in Chartres, France. Also, if you are dining at
Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons
near Oxford you can spot a couple of my glass
works in the dining room.
Stoney Parsons
01892 750099
www.stoneyparsons.co.uk
StoneyParsons
stoneyparsons
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