In this blog I will show you how artists strained to simulate in paint the effects of the glory of color informed by light, the effects of stained glass. The use of gold leaf helped painters to give more a variable, animated and brilliant light to their work. But, the sensation of light and color was incomparable to effects of stained glass. Stained glass has been with us since antiquity. Mediaeval stained glass artists relied on cooking cobalt with sand and lime ash to get blue glass and, cooking manganese in the mixture to get red and purple glass. Yellow came later by adding silver oxide to the pot which which also lead artists to green stained glass. Oddly, the cobalt blue (expensive and rare) would end up in pigment only after the blue glass was ground up to become smalt, a degraded and less potent blue than that made from many other pigments from lapis lazuli to azurite. The early Mediaeval stained glass was dull and barely translucent due to impurities in early glass making compared with the luminous brilliance of later Gothic stained glass. Finally, artists would fuse ( with heat) painted oil enamels to the stained glass to create details in their windows. Here is an example of the later improved glass with blue, yellow, red stained glass from the mid 12th century, St Denis’ chapel of St. Peregrinus. example1.
example 1. 
In later centuries artists from Matisse to Richter have tried their hand at stained glass, forever attracted to colors formed by light. Andy Goldsworthy went further in 1980 by slapping water into sunlight until a rainbow could be captured. example2.
example 2.
German 19th century artists would try reverse-glass painting observing that the glass surface seemed to impart a sheen that evenly deepened the color giving the effect of light-fed color. This process would be borrowed by Hollywood in the 20th century for their own version of reverse -glass painting which would serve as background scenery. More on this subject in a later blog. Transparent color oil glazing would provide another analog to color infused by light. By 1600 artists like Breenburgh ( example 3) were unifying the light of their paintings with red and yellow glazes. The resulting effect of translucent light pleased them and their clients. In example 4 you can see the effect of watercolor glazing by John Singer Sargent. He has glazed the pool with a duller color to suppress the colors beneath the water. The problem with translucent pigment glazes is they always subtract a bit of light. The darker the glaze the greater the loss of reflected light from the painting. A blue overlaid by a yellow glaze goes darker and greener even though a fraction of the blue sensation can still linger. Here is a color mixing grid by Johannes Itten ( example 5) . Notice that the colors are most saturated ( strongest and purest hue) in the corners. As the colors are mixed ( an effect felt by transparent glazing ) you observe the colors become less intense, more opaque.
example 3. 
example 4. 
example 5. 
In an effort to recreate the purity of color of Gothic stained glass and their radical luminosity . I have taken a couple of my paintings and glazed them with pure color using unmixed glazes( oil and pigment only) of carmine, vermillion and ultramarine blue as overlays on the two following paintings. Initially, example 6 was glazed with gamboge yellow then selectively deleted. The unifying effect of the initial yellow glaze is a tradition that reaches back to the 17th Century Spanish artist, Murillo. I present the paintings has they evolved, before and after pure red/blue color glazes. In example 7, notice the pattern of blue and red glazes has created a second design pattern with the red area being continuous and the blue areas being separated or broken.
example 6, before red/blue glazing. 
example 7, after glazing.
In the previous and following example I have chosen the topic of water and water-life because, we are mentally predisposed to think of water as a reflective and transparent surface capable of offering us opaque and transparent effects. In this last example I wish to mentally prime you with the subject, “Koi Swimming Beneath Shadows and Reflections”. A title will direct our mental associations when looking into an ambiguous territory. I rely upon the symbolic color values of blue and green because, they are associated with water and reflected sky and, I rely upon red and yellow because, they are associated with life and sunlight(fire). The initial stage was devoid of blue. The second stage was more opaque. The final stage, while darker appears to offer more depth of color. The time difference between the initial stage, March 2009 and the final stage, March 2012 shows that I used time to reflect upon alternate possibilities for the painting. In the interim the painting was exhibited in all three forms and, went two years without my attending to it. This of course, mocks the clichéd question, “How long did you take to paint that?”
example 8. 
example 9. 
example 10. 
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jerry perlman
interesting and beautiful
Fredric Neuwirth
I’d like you to explain further on glazing; is it an overall application or specific; from example #10 it looks specific.
You should have include John LaFarge in your discussion of stained glass as he created opalescent glass; had a law suit with Tiffany over it and he also layered or stacked various or similar colors of glass.