Helen Whittaker interpreting Hughie O`Donoghue`s art to stained

Helen Whittaker interpreting Hughie O’Donoghue’s art to stained glass for The Marian Windows, two windows
installed in 2013 at the east end of Westminster Abbey’s Lady Chapel.
28 STAINED GLASS | FALL 2015
A PILGRIMAGE IN STAINED GLASS:
Helen Whittaker
By Melissa Barclay
PHOTO: ROB SCOTT
M
y aim is to challenge the imagination and stimulate the mind to embark upon a spiritual
journey,” says Helen Whittaker, Creative Director, Designer/Artist, and Conservation
Painter at Barley Studio in York.
Fortunately, she takes us with her on her artistic and spiritual journey as she creates stained glass
in its many forms: geometric, figurative and abstract designs, and restoration. In addition, one of
Helen’s passions has been to extend artwork from two-dimensional stained glass into architectural
sculpture combining glass with copper.
Helen’s journey begins at the University of Sunderland where she received her BA (Hons) in
1996 in Three-Dimensional Design, Glass with Ceramics. Helen was already interested in fine art,
and particularly the work of the great masters of the past, such as Giotto, Caravaggio, and Vermeer,
for their strong compositions and the drama of their imagery. She explains that “Caravaggio uses
diagonal lines that take your eye upward, to carry the viewer into the painting. I like the play of light
that you get with Caravaggio and Vermeer as well. I appreciate the medieval painters in their sense
of proportion and design.”
At that time, she was interested in more modern artists such as Modigliani and Lichtenstein, a
1960s pop artist known for his thick dark outlines and bold colors. Lichtenstein also worked in 3-D
sculpture and mixed media.
While at Sunderland, Helen particularly enjoyed life drawing and figurative art. She took the first
steps along the path to stained glass by way of Barley Studio, coming from Sunderland as part of a
work placement, arranged by her tutors Mike Davis and Cate Watkinson. At Barley Studio, Helen
began to appreciate the traditional craft of stained glass. “The actual mechanics of the work can be
complex,” she says. “I like the process of combining the craft and the art, how they can inform each
other through skill and imagination.”
From the time of her undergraduate studies, Keith Barley was so impressed by Helen’s enthusiasm
and craftsmanship, and how quickly she learned, that after her work placement, the Studio also
supplied her with paid work during the holidays, and he kept a place open while she pursued a
graduate programme.
The next phase of Helen’s journey led her to the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture
(later renamed The Prince’s Foundation). There, she pursued an MA programme in Visual Islamic
& Traditional Arts, specializing in stained glass, and graduating in 1998. Once she graduated, she
joined Barley Studio’s permanent staff.
At the school, a strong emphasis was placed on practical and theoretical aspects of both Eastern
and Western artistic traditions. The school’s ethos recognizes the traditional arts and crafts as an
integral part of everyday life; that form, pattern, and color come together to create beauty. In particular, Helen came to appreciate the importance of geometry as a reflection of universal order, and her
MA professor Keith Critchlow became a major influence, providing guidance and direction as she
pursued her artistic journey. A leading expert on sacred architecture and sacred geometry, he has
authored many books and articles on the subject, and has designed geometrically-inspired buildings
in England, the United States, and India.
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“Geometry provides the underlying structural process of my work and is also a
valuable element for its symbolism,” says Helen. “Geometry is intrinsic to eastern and
western traditions in art and architecture.” Looking back at the fine art she had admired
previously, Helen could now see the underlying geometry that was so crucial to their
fine compositional design.
Barley Studio, which specialized in Conservation and Restoration, provided her
with a platform and a space to launch and put into practice her diverse range of talents
in conservation work and restoration painting as well as design and creation of new
stained glass work.
From the beginning, Helen had the opportunity to work on several major
conservation projects, helping to restore some of the finest glass in England. At St.
Mary’s, Fairford she did some of the restoration painting for the early 16C windows. She
has restored windows at Durham Cathedral, Merton College Oxford, and many other
places in association with Barley Studio. Most recently, she has been doing restoration
painting for the 16C glass in Lichfield Cathedral’s Lady Chapel (2015). Through this
work, she learned the importance of composition and context in stained glass design
as well as the more technical side of glass painting.
“One can learn from the masters of the past and translate
what we discover into the modern craft of today,” Helen
says. “In restoration, I try to capture the spirit of the
painting at the time, rather than just copy.”
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
Helen’s first major stained glass design projects were geometric in form, following from
her interest in geometry developed during her MA studies. In 2000, at Ely Cathedral, she
created The New Processional Way, set within the original cloister windows. Historically,
Ely was a pilgrim center and the processional way replaced a medieval passageway used
by pilgrims to pass between the shrine of St. Etheldreda and the Lady Chapel.
Helen produced a design sympathetic to the cathedral’s surrounding décor, especially
relevant to symbols of the Virgin Mary. She had already been involved with Barley
Studio’s conservation work at Ely so she was familiar with the existing stained glass
scheme and the cathedral’s architectural space. Keith Barley encouraged her to look
at examples of 14C stained glass to inform her modern geometric design. The three
four-light windows and flanking door-panel lights, for a total of 14 windows, are based
on geometric principles inspired by Critchlow.
In each commission, during the initial creative design and planning phase, Helen
carefully considers the history of the building, the architectural space surrounding
the window, the purpose of the window within the building (for example, the East
Window of a church being the devotional point) and the light coming through the
window (the aspect of the window and which direction it faces).
Helen created her first major figurative work in 2002 at St. Ethelburga’s, which had
survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the World War II Blitz, but was almost
destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1993. The vision for the new structure was to transform
the surviving East end of the Church building into a Centre for Reconciliation and
Peace, where scholars could explore the role of religion in conflict and work toward
peaceful resolution.
Working with the Bishop of London, Helen incorporated surviving elements from
the old church into her new stained glass design. The five-light East window depicting
30 STAINED GLASS | FALL 2015
PHOTO: COURTESY OF HELEN WHITTAKER
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
FACING PAGE:
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
Artworks on the Theme of Pilgrimage, 2004, Beverly Minster, East
Yorkshire, UK.
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Helen Whittaker on work placement at Barley Studios, 1995, York, UK.
Sublime (detail), 2000, private commission.
Helen receiving the Hancock Medal for High Achievement from
the Prince of Wales, 2006.
The New Processional Way (detail), 2000, Ely Cathedral,
Cambridgeshire, UK.
FALL 2015 | STAINED GLASS 31
the Benedictine Abbess St. Ethelburga contains fragments of
rescued glass from a shattered 1872 window by C. E. Kempe.
Each fragment is placed the right way up, as it would have
been in its original setting, an idea from Keith Barley. Kempe glass pieces also appear in architectural features of the
heavenly Jerusalem.
The Prince of Wales, who officially reopened the Centre for
Reconciliation and Peace in November 2002 and was involved
in the project, said of Helen that she is “a brilliant craftswoman.”
“I was very keen to have something that represented the
future and my window ties in with that,” Helen says. “The
Prince funded me to do a Master’s at his Foundation. He was
quite delighted by all the ties that we had, and that I was a
working artist who had benefited from his backing.”
In 2002, Helen submitted a design to The Stevens Competition organized by the Worshipful Company of Glaziers,
and received both a ‘Highly Commended’ and the Award for
Craftsmanship, out of 56 stained glass artists. She also won
the commission to design a new East window for Ellerton
Priory where Barley Studio has been responsible for conservation and restoration work on the Priory’s medieval glass.
That same year, Helen received a commission to create
the Great West window at Worksop Priory, Church of Our
Lady and St. Cuthbert. As part of the award, Helen received a
Prince’s Foundation Travelling Scholarship to visit Germany,
to see how windows were made on a large scale in several
major studios. She accompanied a party from North Wales
School of Art and Design on a tour of stained glass installations
at the cathedral and churches in Cologne, the Glass Museum
at Linnich, and other locations in Germany, including Mainz
Cathedral, site of the Chagall windows. She was able to spend
one week each of work experience at Derix Glasstudios, Peters
Studio, and Oidtmann Studio.
32 STAINED GLASS | FALL 2015
The window celebrates the 800th anniversary of the Priory’s founding, with Helen’s traditional figure of St. Cuthbert
for the Great West window, incorporating decorative motifs of
the Priory’s south door ironwork, along with fruit, leaves, and
flowers from the Tickhill Psalter, a former Priory treasure.
Helen is best known for her installation at Beverley Minster (2004), her first major abstract work and her first work incorporating sculpture with stained glass. Pilgrimage conveys
the Minster’s history as a pilgrim destination from medieval
times. Here, Helen created artworks representing pilgrimage, and was chosen from five invited, established artisans
of different disciplines to submit designs for the Minster.
“In my mind’s eye, I could see my designs in situ,” she
recalls. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do, in and around
the whole space based on the theme devoted to twenty-first
century pilgrimage.”
The Pilgrim window is comprised of glass chosen to
complement the color tones already assembled in the nearby
medieval Great East window. Helen intentionally created
the new window in an abstract design rather than figurative,
so as not to compete with it, and to bring balance to the
whole. “I concentrated on the transmission of light,” Helen
says. “I wanted to use the specific qualities of glass, by
combining color, texture, paint, and expressive leadwork,
to create a sparkling, jewelled effect similar to that achieved
by medieval glaziers.”
Although abstract, the design has a strong geometric basis,
inspired by Helen’s studies with Critchlow. “His knowledge
of geometry gave meaning to what I was doing. The center of
the window represents God the Creator, the starting point
of all our journeys. Geometry is at the heart of the design
– at a practical level, unifying the work as a whole and as
a symbolic medium for the message of faith and love upon
LEFT TO RIGHT:
ALL PHOTOS: GORDON PLUMB
A 1993 view of St. Ethelburga’s bomb-damaged east window.
Stained glass incorporating fragments from the bomb-damaged
window, St. Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace,
London, 2002.
Before and after views of Helen’s 2007 restoration painting
of St. Jerome, early 16th-century stained and painted glass,
St. Mary’s Church, Fairford, UK.
Helen painting the “Spring” window from The Four Seasons,
St. Peter’s and St. Mary’s Church, Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK.
which all pilgrimages are based. As with all geometric forms,
it is impossible to tell the beginning from the end.”
Two life-sized sculpture figures fashioned of three triangles
of sheet copper stand beneath the Pilgrim window, made by
Helen Whittaker and Keith Barley with advice from sculptor
and teacher Harold Gosney. Harold has often assisted Helen
in developing her ideas into practical forms, and he initially
suggested using sheet copper for the figures at Beverley. The
figures appear to gaze at the window while shafts of ‘pilgrim
light’ fall upon them, and they receive the light. Their triangular-shaped copper ‘hearts’ provide a link to the window, as each
is composed of small fragments of colored glass. The copper
figures add an extra dimension to the window, physically and
psychologically. Helen’s intention is to encourage the viewer
to think. Completing the scheme, a four-foot candle stand of
copper in the shape of a cross, represents the Trinity.
In 2006, Helen and Keith Barley jointly received the
Craftsmanship Award from the York Guild of Building.
Other stained glass commissions followed, and other awards,
including the Hancock Medal for High Achievement from
The Prince’s Foundation.
Helen created The Four Seasons using allegorical figures
spread across four windows at St. Peter & Mary, Stowmarket
(Suffolk) in 2005-06. God is represented as the Creator of the
elements Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Each season fills a neoGothic triple lancet topped by tracery lights, on a background
of clear and tinted diamond quarries with textured edging
and wavy lead lines.
“I had already worked on some designs against a background
of clear white diamond quarry glass in a few other windows, especially at St. Ethelburga,” Helen says. “This gave me the opportunity to expand the idea further.” Helen views the Stowmarket
windows as a figurative development of the Beverley design.
In 2006, at St. Gregory, Kirknewton (Northumbria),
Helen designed a centenary window and copper sculpture
in memory of social reformer Josephine Butler, buried in
the churchyard. The following year, Helen continued with
the theme of Pilgrimage at Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell
in a 22-foot East window, Jesus and the Children. That same
year, Helen designed a Prayer Tree copper sculpture filled
with colored glass for the York District Hospital MultiFaith Chapel. Leaf shapes were inspired by the natural
shape of the Tree of Heaven or Ailanthus altissima leaf,
and the sculpture includes prayer hooks within the veins
of the leaves, which allow chapel visitors to leave prayers
for their family and friends.
“All kinds of people use the chapel,” Helen says. “That’s
when you realize how important your work can be, when
you see people leaving notes on the tree.”
In 2008, the Royal Air Force (RAF) Club in Piccadilly,
London celebrated its 90th anniversary, and Helen won the
commission to create a window for the Club’s staircase. A
landscape of historic RAF scenes is topped by a large circle
representing the radar sweep and the moon providing guidance to the aircraft. Helen used the RAF motto as a starting
point for her design: Per ardua et astra (through struggle
to the stars), although the moon provides guidance to the
aircraft in this scene.
One of the challenges of this project was that the building
does not have much natural lighting. Helen compensated for
this at the bottom of the window by use of metallic gold, bronze,
and silver leaf with colored enamels that rely on reflection from
interior lighting. In the upper level, Helen used transparent
and lighter colored glass to take advantage of external light.
Also in 2008, Helen reprised the theme of pilgrimage
at St. Mary’s Church, Community and Conference Centre,
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34 STAINED GLASS | FALL 2015
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
Sheffield. The previous window had been stored during World War II and then lost.
Following the creation of the community centre and conference venue in 2001, it
was decided to replace the lost glass. The journey begins in the lower portion of
the window with an abstract, geometric pathway that sweeps diagonally across
the entire lower half of the window. As the pilgrims traverse the desert, a spring
appears, and droplets of rainfall.
Two life-size copper sculptures emphasize the window and the theme of
pilgrimage, the journey through life, and life choices. Constructed of triangularshaped pieces of copper, the figures transform into more complex, whole beings
as they move upward in the sculpture, and progress along the pilgrim’s way. The
triangle shapes symbolize the three-fold nature of God, and the connection to the
window with its triangular shapes creates a three-way relationship between the
window, the sculpture, and the viewer. The sculptures are a conscious development
of those created at Beverley. “The Beverley sculptures were simple in form, almost
a breakdown of oneself before God,” Helen explains. “The Sheffield figures turn
back into the human form with God’s love and guidance.”
At St. Saviour’s Church, Sheffield, in 2010, Helen had the opportunity to create
a stained glass and copper memorial for teacher Sheila Ferguson.
In 2013, at Holy Trinity, Stockton-on-the-Forest (Yorks.), Helen designed a
memorial window for the North chancel, based on the theme of the Holy Trinity. A
geometric design utilizes a trio of traditional Christian symbols to form triangular
shapes around the “Tree of History,” a Trinitarian idea from 12C theologian Joachim
Fiore. Helen’s inspiration stemmed from a quote by Hermes Trismegistus, “God is
a circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference is nowhere.”
Another milestone in Helen’s journey took place in 2013, at Westminster Abbey.
Barley Studio and Helen Whittaker were commissioned to work with painter
Hughie O’Donoghue to create two stained glass windows to celebrate the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee. O’Donoghue created the artwork, Helen interpreted the painting
onto glass using full-size cartoons provided by Hughie, and Barley Studio made
and installed the windows.
“It’s been a great privilege to work in this shrine to English history and culture,
with royal emblems everywhere you look,” said Keith Barley.
The windows are located in the Lady Chapel, with The Chapel’s original 16C
stained glass by the King’s Glazier, Flemish Barnard Flower. Much of the glass
was destroyed in the English Civil War, and the rest during World War II, but a
few original fragments of old cobalt and ruby glass are preserved in the uppermost
traceries, and these were kept as part of the new design.
The two windows replaced plain glazing which had been in place since World
War II, and are located on either side of an East window by Alan Younger (2000).
O’Donoghue’s design incorporates Marian symbols of lilies for purity and the
Annunciation, stars for the Virgin Mary’s conception, and fleur-de-lys, which are
also associated with royalty. Each window comprises about 50 panels, with white
or cream-colored lilies and stars painted on the background.
“I was delighted to be chosen to create this artwork in collaboration with Hughie
O’Donoghue,” Helen said. “When the commission started at Westminster Abbey, I
knew Hughie was a painter and that he painted in oils. I was so excited by the idea
of trying to interpret his paintings onto glass. Most people think a stained glass
artist must actually design the work but I think if a good designer has the right
collaborators, as John Piper did with Patrick Reyntiens, they can make it work.”
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
PHOTO: BARLEY STUDIOS, LTD.
FACING PAGE:
The Trinity Window , north chancel, Holy Trinity
Church, Stockton on the Forest, York, UK.
THIS PAGE, TOP:
The Trinity Window (detail)
BOTTOM:
Artworks on the Theme of Pilgrimage, 2004,
copper sculpture with glass, Beverley Minster,
East Yorkshire, UK.
“The fact that Hughie is a good artist and painter, and Helen is a good
stained glass artist means that we can work together,” added Keith.
Helen wanted to capture the consistency of O’Donoghue’s painting as well as
replicating the style of the brushstrokes, so she figured out what kind of brushes
he used as well as getting the right consistency of paints and pigments. One
difference from traditional stained glass design was that O’Donoghue used blue
enamels, rather than the traditional dark brown paint. Helen replicated this
using blue enamel and blue paint, mixed with Dammar varnish and distilled
turpentine. Multiple layers of enamels were used to intensify the colors just
as O’Donoghue does when painting on paper or canvas.
Another difference from traditional stained glass work came in the
development of the lead. O’Donoghue did not use lead lines to outline the
forms, as is usual in stained glass, but Helen showed how carefully placed
partial outlines can emphasize the design. In this way, the two artists worked
together to create the final work.
“After all the hours of hard work making the windows, the Barley Studio team
are very excited about this project,” Keith stated. “As a Yorkshire firm, we are proud
to be keeping the art and craft of stained glass, both creation and conservation,
alive, especially as we are celebrating forty years in business this year.”
Helen has designed new windows at many churches and public buildings in
Great Britain. She recently finished Paradise, reflecting St Brandon’s journey
to an exotic island, at St. Brandon’s Church, Brancepeth (Co. Durham), and a
Jesse tree at St. Mary’s Priory Church, Abergavenny (Wales).
“I receive inspiration for stained glass all around me,” Helen says. “I draw
from everything that inspires, from all art, not just stained glass.”
Helen aims to pass on this inspiration to artists and fellow pilgrims through
teaching, exhibits, and other outreach activities. In addition to her role as
Course Tutor at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts since 1999, she gives
many lectures and workshops around the country. She also demonstrated the
medieval glass techniques used in John Thornton’s York Minster East window
for a BBC4 broadcast (2011).
“Each project presents new challenges, and each space suggests a particular style,” Helen says. “I like being able to work in geometric, figurative or
abstract forms, using different styles of design without feeling restrained or
boxed in. Ultimately, windows should be in harmony with their surroundings
but speak of today.”
Helen presents a spiritual message in all of her windows, with a strong
personal connection to each place and the people who use each building. She is
an enthusiastic, inspirational, and highly gifted stained glass artist. She is also
generous in acknowledging the inspiration and support from her mentors and
collaborators: conservator and glazier Keith Barley, Keith Critchlow, Harold
Gosney, Charles Smith, and many others. Working with the talented team of
conservators and glaziers at Barley Studio has allowed Helen to create larger
and more complex projects.
We look forward to following Helen Whittaker’s artistic pilgrimage in
the years to come. “You must have a passion for stained glass and love what
you do,” Helen says. “You can’t just follow this trend or that trend, leaded or
free-painted, modern or traditional glass. You have to follow your own vision,
and your own path.” •
FALL 2015 | STAINED GLASS 35